For the first time
by foolishangel87
Summary: They've fought battles and destroyed their enemies. But now the greatest challenge of all comes in the form of the stranger that resides in Eric's head.  When his memories are taken,Allie struggles to remain connected to the vampire she once knew..5th fic
1. A new beginning

**Chapter 1 A new beginning**

"I cannot believe you would do this." I murmured to Eric a few night later as we sat next to each other in the empty first class cabin on a night time flight to England and I reached out for his arm to tug him closer. "I can't believe you dropped thousands of dollars just so we could have the entire first class section to ourselves. It wouldn't have been enough to simply have these seats? You had to buy out the entire cabin?"

"Have you not met me before? You know I always do stuff like this." He smirked, looking around the empty section like it was no big deal. None of the flight attendants had dared to come back to see if we needed anything because they were terrified of Eric, which seemed to sit well just fine with him. "And besides, I like having privacy especially when it involves you."

"You are so bad sometimes." I rolled my eyes, pushing at his chest as he snaked one of his arms around me but I couldn't stop the smile that had come over my face since we stepped foot on the plane. Actually, the smile had been in place for days now since we decided to take off for England rather quickly. But it was the getting away part with just him and I that seemed to have brought about a new sort of relief to our lives that we never had before. For the first time in over a year, we were completely and utterly at ease and we wanted to enjoy every minute of it. I looked up at his face and smiled again. "But I love you when you are like this. It's so incredibly hot."

"And I love when you are relaxed. You are so much more fun when you're not freaking out over something." He teased back, flicking my hair off my shoulder with his long fingers. "I do believe this is the first time when we are going to be able to just have fun and enjoy ourselves."

"What are you talking about? The first time?" I pretended to be offended but I only ended up laughing because of what I said next. "You enjoyed yourself with me right before we left for the airport."

"Oh yes, that was particularly fun for me." Eric's lips twitched slightly as we both remembered the encounter we had right before leaving the house which included a very sensual moment of him bending me over the back of the couch. An action that really got him aroused and in turn excited me even more. Eric's hand reached over and cupped my crossed knees. "You have been a feisty little kitten these last few nights. And I'm really liking it."

"Of course you are." I rolled my eyes before they caught sight of something that made me sit up with a mischievous smile on my face and grab his hand. "Come with me for a second."

"Oh God, you have that look on your face again and that never means anything good." He pretended to resist but the moment I got up out of my seat he followed me out into the aisle and over to the door my eyes had spied from 10 feet away. "The bathroom? What do you need me for in..."

"You know very well what I need you for in there." I stated before opening the door and doing my best to push him into the small cramped space that would have been barely enough for one person let alone someone as tall as Eric. But somehow we managed it when I was able to hoist myself up on the sink counter and pull him right between my legs before looking into his eyes, feeling serious for a moment. "I love you Eric."

"I love you too." He said, touching my face with his fingers, also looking serious for the first time in days. "Things are going to be good for now on. We will finally find peace with each other."

"As long as I'm with you..." I looked down at the engagement ring sparkling on my finger before my eyes were back on his face. "As long as we are together, then I'll always have peace."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Shreveport<span>_

"Um, can we talk?" A timid voice asked from deep within the tree line of the woods, tearing Louie's attention away from the stars he had been staring at for the last 30 minutes and over to the figure that was now emerging at human's pace even though he was a 2000 year old vampire. Godric, although one of the oldest vampires around, approached him looking almost nervous as if he were expecting a lashing. Ironic though was his arrival since it was only moments ago when Louie had been thinking of the battle and how close they had all come to losing their lives. It had been a long a tense night that felt incredibly human to them all and it was something that he was sure would definitely stay with him for a long time to come. Mostly because he was amazed that he had evolved so much in such a short amount of time that he would go charging into battle for a girl he had only known for a few months. And risk having his long life ended or watching his former friend die before his eyes. And apparently Godric must have been feeling sentimental tonight too as judging by what he said next. "I kind of have something to say that I should have said a few nights ago."

"A few night ago? You mean when Helen was telling us the truth?" Louie asked after waving his old friend over and watching him sit down on the steps next to him. He wasn't sure he was ready to talk about Helen with Godric, not when they had their own unresolved issues between them. "I don't really want..."

"It doesn't involve Helen. It's more related to us then to anything." Godric interrupted, sitting with his back against the porch railing and his hands resting on his knees. "I wasn't actually intending on coming here. But I was thinking about the battle and how close we all came to death that night..."

"That's so odd, I was just thinking about the war too." Louie cut in, almost about to laugh at how their minds still seemed to work on the same wave length after all these years. That didn't mean they always got along even when they were friends but they had been turned by the same maker at the same time and have always looked at each other as brothers. And sitting here right now with Godric, Louie wondered if they would ever get back to that point. "I never really gave it much thought after that night, but tonight it just sort of caught up to me."

"I've been thinking about it pretty much every night since it happened and that kind of got my thought process going. And that in turn brought me here to you." Godric explained, his usually calm face going a little serious. A look that Louie recognized from the past whenever Godric was gearing up for some big huge tirade. It was almost amusing to see his vampire former brother revert back to his old self. It sort of gave him a flame of hope that he cold fix this broken bond. "I know we both hurt each other in our own ways and as much as we did that and as separated as we have been, I still hated thinking that one of us might die in that battle without anything being resolved."

"I will admit that it went through my mind too at least a few times while it was going on." Louie confessed, running his fingers through his short blonde hair and thinking about what Godric had just said. It was obvious that he was hoping things could go back to normal, the way they were a thousand years ago. But Louie would be lying if he said it were that easy. Despite knowing the truth, Louie couldn't let bygones be bygones. At least not any time soon. Until then, he would just have to be honest. "Look, I logically understand that you weren't completely at fault because Helen didn't technically die. But you were still suppose to be watching over her so this didn't happen. And I can't seem to let it go."

"I get that. I can't deny that I let you down when I didn't do what I was suppose to do and I have only myself to blame."Godric nodded, backing up his claim that he wasn't going to write off his wrong doings and Louie could see that the younger looking vampire was remorseful. But Godric wasn't going to let himself off the hook so quickly. "And we also just found out the truth a few nights ago and she appeared only 2 weeks ago. So we can't expect to just have everything return to the way it was a thousand years ago."

"That's certainly true." Louie agreed without hesitating. The pace in which Helen had shown up and the truth had come out was just a whirlwind, even for vampires. So it was going to take some time before they could work through it all. "So much has happened and too much time has been spent being angry that it won't be easy to get back what we use to have."

"Is that even possible?" Godric questioned, raising his eyebrow in doubt. "I mean, do you even want to do that?"

"I've been alone for the last thousand years without friends or even a progeny and I'm only realizing now how much that sucks." Louie found himself confessing fairly easily. He probably would have only said this to Allison, as he felt more at ease talking to her but there was change in the air right now with Godric and he felt the urge to open up like he had never had before. He looked at his old friend and sighed. "I don't want it to be like that anymore."

"That's good to know." Godric's face broke out into a smile, bringing to the surface a brief image of the vampire Louie had grown up with. "As frayed as our friendship is, it can be fixed if we both try."

"Then..." Louie didn't have to think too much about it before answering with his hand extended. "..here's to trying."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in London<span>_

"Holy...crap!" I whispered out loud after Eric had pushed me through a doorway and removed his hands from over my eyes like he had insisted on doing the entire ride to the apartment building. He said I wouldn't see too much anyway since it was so late at night, so I had complied and allowed him to have his fun. And now when we were finally upstairs in the penthouse apartment, he had taken his hands away and let me take in the sight of his home in this part of the world and my jaw dropped open in shock. "You live here too? This is amazing. I can't believe you own this."

"It's just an apartment." He said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as if the richly navy blue carpeted floors and the floor to ceiling windows and leather furniture were no big deal as he dragged our luggage inside and locked the door before saying. "And besides, once you and I get married then all of this is yours too."

"Ah yes, the benefit of marrying such a wealthy vampire." I replied teasingly turning my wide eyes away from the stylish room and went to wrap my arms around my fiancee's waist. Fiancee, I could never get tired of saying that word. I stood up on my tip toes so I could press my lips against his and when I pulled away, I just sighed in contentment. I loved my life right now, for once it was as close to perfect as it could get. "Can you believe we're finally here? Not in England, but in a great stage in our relationship?"

"And to think you use to hate me in the beginning. My how things have changed." He smirked, bringing his hands up to cup my face and messing his fingers in my hair to draw me closer. "I like to think you adore me a little bit more now."

"Only a little bit." I giggled, leaning my forehead against his chest with a smile. I had never felt so carefree and lighthearted as I did right now. It wasn't just because I was in a country I always wanted to visit or in an apartment that was more extravagant then most houses in Bon Temps. It was because for the first time in what seemed like forever, I was finally at peace with myself. Things were in place like they never had been before and I was able to breathe a rare breath of air that didn't come at the end of a hard day. I was happy tonight and I was with the man I loved more then life itself. It couldn't get any better then it was right now. But when I tilted my head back and looked into his eyes, I grinned and grabbed his hand. "Come on, show me to the bedroom."

"Seriously? You want sex again?" His voice tried to hold on to it's teasing tone but I could tell from his thoughts that he was beyond excited and if anything, that only thrilled me more. "Damn, if proposing to you got me this much sex I would have done it the night I first met you. Maybe then it wouldn't have taken me so long to get you in my bed."

"Our first time was in my bed you moron." I pointed out before Eric swept me up in his arms before I could say another word...

_2 hours later_

"So I've been thinking..." I said to Eric quietly as I laid wrapped up in the black silk sheets of his bed watching him as he stood leaning completely naked against a dresser with a wineglass of blood at his lips and smiled. He had just made love to me in a way that I could only compare with being on par with the first time. It was gentle and sweet and I felt such love coming from him that it didn't seem like the same vampire. He would stroke my hair and whisper things in my ear that I couldn't decipher because it was in another language, and was just genuinely so considerate of how I felt that after he had rolled off me, I just laid there staring at him thinking I had never been happier then I was right now. And that brought me full circle to what was on my mind right now. "...about our engagement and I was just wondering when you were thinking we should get married."

"Well, if we're being completely honest..." He began to say, setting down the now empty glass and flashed over to the bed where he threw himself down beside me and grinned. "...then the sooner the better."

"Oh really?" I asked, sitting up and tucked the sheet more tightly under my arms and looked over at him curiously. " So if I said we should get married tonight, that would be ok?"

"Actually it would be." He smirked, swinging his feet back down to the floor and tugged on my hand. " Let's go and do it."

"You are crazy and I was just kidding." I squealed, pulling on his arm so he was down beside me again. But what I said had kind of struck a chord with me. "But then again, I do like the idea of not waiting too long before we get married."

"The benefit to waiting would be that we have more time to plan." He pointed out, even though his face showed the last thing he wanted to do was get swept up in wedding plans. "And I would be willing to give you a big wedding if that's what you want."

"No way. I mean its sweet that you would do that but no. I would hate to have all that attention on me." I shuddered at the thought of having a huge ceremony where all faces would be on me. I may have changed a lot in the last few years but I was still very much a shy and timid person at heart and being in the spotlight is not something I would want. Even if it was for the most important day of my life. But the fact that Eric would spend money on a huge wedding if I wanted was touching. "It's nice that you would do that, but I would be perfectly happy with a small ceremony."

"Are you sure?" He questioned, eying me suspiciously like he had been so certain that all women wanted a big, crazy wedding the moment they became engaged. But that was so not me and Eric knew how I felt about him spending too much money on me. The engagement ring was one thing. But a ceremony was another. "I don't want you to have regrets."

"Hey, as long as we get married then I will never have regrets." I told him, reaching up to touch his face with my fingertips. It was true, as long as he and I ended up making this official then I wouldn't regret not having a big ceremony. And besides, if I ever did want something like that, then we could always do it for a vow renewal. But right now, it wasn't what I wanted. "The only regret I would have if we waited too long to take the next step like we did the last time."

"Trust me, that will never happen again." He said with another devious smirk before he closed off the conversation by climbing back on top of me.

* * *

><p><em><span>In Shreveport<span>_

"Not to disturb you or anything, but can I join you?"

Louie looked across the yard towards the tree line to the source of the noise and saw Helen's blonde hair emerging out of the woods with a slightly nervous expression on her beautiful face. He had been staring up at the stars since Godric had left him alone but now that Helen had made her presence known, he allowed his eyes to linger on her, amazed that she looked just as flawless as she had been back then even though she was a vampire. She approached him slowly, almost as though she were expecting him to tell her to go away but he had no intention of doing that. After making some sort of progress with Godric, he had been in the frame of having an open mind and with her showing up, he was fine with her sitting next to him and as he waved her over, she did just that.

"I wasn't expecting to see you tonight." He said when she had settled on the top porch step next to him with a good 12 inches of space in the middle of them which he suspected she had done on purpose but he wouldn't comment on it. Instead he chose a lighter subject. "And especially not alone. Why isn't Gabriel with you? Aren't you two usually attached at the hip?"

"I sent him off to Fangtasia for the night." Helen answered back with a little bit of a smirk on her lips that he hadn't often seen before she was a vampire. She had always been this sweet, darling little Faerie and her expression since she had revealed herself as a vampire were more feisty then he had ever seen on her. She cocked her head in his direction before saying. "I think it will be good for him to be around humans and other vampires who aren't me."

"You're a good maker for doing that." Louie found himself smiling at her, an action he couldn't imagine doing just days ago. He had done plenty of thinking since that night and he knew that at some point down the line he would think of rekindling things with her. But right now they just needed to get to know each other again. "You must really care for him."

"He's my child, I love him with whatever remains of my heart." Helen said with all the conviction he had ever heard in anyone's voice. He saw it in her eyes when she said this, it would have been the same look a human female would say about the child she just gave birth to. It was a look he didn't think he would see in her eyes. A maternal, protective instinct. She really had changed. "Didn't you ever think of making a progeny?"

"Not really, I was pretty ok with just being on my own. At least until Allison kind of charged into my life and reminded me it was good to have other people around." Louie explained with a frown, not liking to admit that he was forced to change his way of thinking. But it was the truth. He had been alone for a long time and when Godric started coming to him for help and then Allison walked into his life, he was starting to realize that being alone was just not going to cut it anymore. But he had never been driven to change that before any of this happened. He looked at Helen, who he had once shared everything with and asked. "Do you want to know the real reason why I never kept friends or turned another vampire?"

"Because you didn't want anyone else to be like this?" She asked with a shrug, her hair falling over one shoulder and catching the moon light like it had so many times before this. "You didn't come across anyone you liked enough to turn into your progeny?"

"No. It's because I knew that if I ever created a child then it would create a bond and love that overrode anything before it. Including the love I had for you." He explained, seeing just how much his honesty shocked her as she pulled back with a frown on her pale face. "I didn't want that to happen. I didn't want you to be replaced."

"I never forgot you, you know. I was always keeping tabs on you, Godric too. I could never completely let go." Helen's face turned away from him but not before he caught a glimpse of a lone red tear rolling down her smooth cheek. "I don't think I ever stopped wanting you, even when I was trying to stay away."

"I know you loved me then and I know you probably even love me now. And I wish I could tell you we can just go back to how it use to be between us,but I don't think its possible just yet." He told her, reaching over to turn her face back to his and before he could stop himself, he was wiping the blood from her cheek with his thumb. It felt wonderful to touch her again, just like it had the night she had told them all the truth. She felt the same to him and she sparked the same electric current in him that she had before any of this happened. He could feel the want he still held for her, the desire he had for the intimacy they had shared. But he wasn't willing to go there yet. He dropped his hand back to his lap and said. "I don't want to lead you on, I just want to be honest."

"Not being honest is what got us to this point, so I welcome your honesty." Helen smiled back even though her eyes showed a slight disappointment at the disappearance of his touch. But it was soon replaced by a look of determination. "It will be different this time around. I promise."

"I'm going to hold you to that." He retorted, sitting back so not to overstep this invisible line they had set between them. But as they turned their eyes to the sky, Louie couldn't help but think this may have been the first step in the salvation of their relationship.

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Bon Temps<span>_

_Knock...knock...knock..knock_

"Who in the hell is that?" Sookie found herself snapping as she sat up on the couch where she had been curled up with her husband for the past hour and frowned towards the front door where she could faintly make out the movement of shadows from under the door. She looked at Bill who had also sat up with a guarded look on his face, and said. "Who would be here this late at night?"

"Someone who knows where we live and who couldn't have come at an earlier time. It has to be a vampire." He replied, his already serious face turning more serious as he got off the couch and headed to answer the knocking before she could even move. She had just gotten to the doorway of the living room when Bill had the door open and a figure dressed in black breezed on through before he could invite her in. Bill slammed the door shut with an angry frown and turned to face the severe looking blonde with his arms crossed. "Miss Flanagan, how terrible it is to see you."

"That's sweet Bill, but save the pleasantries for another night. I'm here on a business matter." Nan waved her hand through the air, Bill's obvious disdain for her arrival not affecting her in the slightest before she turned and set her eyes on Sookie. "Well, I see he has kept you around for the long haul."

"Being that we are now married, I would say that I am definitely here for the long run." Sookie replied, her voice tinged hard as it always was whenever Nan dared to show up in their lives. She never had anything good to say about anyone and being that it had been over a year since she had come to see any of them, it meant that whatever she was here for was serious. Sookie crossed her arms as Nan removed her leather gloves and said "Can I ask why you are showing up here at our home out of nowhere?"

"As I said to your husband, I have a business matter to attend to. One that involves him." Nan replied, shooting a look over her shoulder at Bill who had left his spot by the door and walked into the living room to join her and Nan. The older vampire looked around the place with disgust, obviously the surroundings not living up to her taste before she turned to face Bill with a tight lipped smile. "I have a proposition for you."

"No disrespect intended, but I do not want to hear it." Bill immediately shook his head, already closing off the conversation before it could continue which was usually the best way to deal with Nan. "I have no interest in any kind of business opportunity. I am quite content with my life right now."

"You may be for now, but I insist that you hear me out. Trust me when I say it will change your mind." Nan grinned, putting on the look that she usually reserved when she was in front of the cameras and was trying to convince the human public they had nothing to fear. But Sookie knew better then to trust that look. Nan always had some hidden agenda. "It would be a great benefit for you."

"I'm still not interested." Bill was trying to remain steadfast in his resolve, Sookie could see that. But Nan also seemed determined to be heard out with whatever she wanted Bill to know and if the much older vampire was that adamant, then it might be for the best to just let her say it and get it over with. And Bill seemed to be picking up on that. "Fine. Say what you need to say and then leave."

"You're too kind." Nan rolled her eyes, clearly thrilled that she was getting her own way and she crossed her arms and stood there with her hip popped to the side before saying with no warning. "I'll make it quick. The Queen is dead and the AVL wants you to be King of the state now."

"Sophie Ann is dead?" Bill asked, his face giving away how shocked he was and that didn't happen often. "And the AVL wants me to do what?"

"How did she die?" Sookie dared to ask, curiosity getting the better of her. She knew the now former Queen of Louisiana was hundreds of years old and not much could be done to take her down and if she was dead, then there was something off about it. "Was it murder?"

"Actually it was. Nice guess Mrs. Compton." Nan said with a very sarcastic roll of her eyes at that last part and if she wasn't so good at putting on a good face, then Sookie was sure Nan would have been sneering at her. But she turned her attention back to Bill. "But that's all you need to know. We have no clue who is behind it but it doesn't matter now. What we need is someone to take her place and that someone is you."

"You really expect me to accept this sudden position right after you tell me the Queen was murdered? No I don't think so." Bill was suspicious, as he rightfully should be. Something wasn't right about this visit. A power and old vampire was suddenly and mysteriously murdered and Nan just shows up and offers Bill the chance to be King? No, something was definitely up. "I refuse to take this position on account it would put me in the middle of a political agenda and I do no wish to be there."

"I figured you would say that, but I have to tell you that it would be in your best interest to accept being King. You don't want to turn this down." Nan was not budging and that made Sookie even more suspicious as Bill reached her side and they reached out for each other. But it was their embrace that seemed to spark something in Nan because what she said next shook Sookie down to her toes. "It would also keep your newly acquired wife safe and sound."

"Is that a threat?" Bill's face twisted darkly and he stepped forward as if to get in Nan's face but Sookie had the brains to hold him back, knowing that if Bill attacked her then there would be hell to pay. "Answer me. Did you just threaten my wife?"

"Take it however you want Bill, I'm just stating the facts." Nan maintained her calm and neutral expression as she spoke. "But if you want to remain untouched, then I think you will find agreeing to be King is not the worse decision you will ever make."

"Do you know who is behind the murder?" Bill suddenly asked, his eyes narrowing as he appeared to have picked up something. "You seem to have an idea that someone is targeting vampires in authority."

"I have my suspicions, but none I care to share." Nan retorted with a singular raised eyebrow that suggested she had more then just a suspicion to run on. "So what's it going to be Bill?"

Bill turned away from Nan and looked down at her, his eyes silently communicating his thoughts that she wished she was able to hear. If only Allie hadn't gone off with Eric on vacation, then she could have possibly helped them with this. But Allie wasn't here and they had to make a decision now. And as much as Sookie didn't want her and Bill to be involved in this, it seemed that more harm would come from refusing then from accepting. So she just sighed and nodded to Bill, who in turn sank his shoulders before sealing his own fate.

"Fine...I accept the position of King."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in the woods<span>_

"Well hello stranger. Funny meeting you here." An amused lighthearted voice spoke out from the darkness of the trees and interrupted Helen's solitude of thoughts and caused her to look up just in time to see the owner of that voice stepping out in front of her. His calm and friendly face still apparent after the passage of a thousand years. "Nice to see you haven't decided to take off again."

"Hey Godric." Helen felt her lips part in a smile as she took in the sight of not only her former lover but also her former friend who she was still happy to see on this night. She sat up straighter on the fallen tree trunk she had settled on and watched as Godric moved across the grass and took a seat beside her, glad that he had come across her after she had parted from Louie. "What are you doing out here?"

"I guess I can ask you the same question." He said back, his arms covered in white sleeves rested on top of his knees as he tilted his head to look at her. "I'm out here because I have nothing better to do now that my progeny is no longer in the country to annoy me and mostly because I like the quietness of the woods when I'm trying to think."

"Yea, I know what you mean. I needed some time to think as well." She murmured, running her hands through her long blonde hair as fragments of her talk with Louie came flooding back to her and she found herself sighing. "Is it just me or does talking to Louie..."

"Make you feel less human then you already are?" Godric finished with a smile, his eyes lighting up further in amusement as he shook his head. "Yea I know how that feels. It's not intentional on his part. He's just one of those lucky vampires, who even though he has lived as long as he has, has never really committed true evil like some of us has. And when he talks to vampires, he doesn't realize it, but he makes them remember just how much they don't live up to his goodness."

"It never really occurred to me just how dark of a history I have, at least not until I was talking to Louie tonight." Helen replied with a frown, her forehead furrowing in thought. Of course she was aware of what she had done, it was just not something she could ever forget. But it had never been so glaringly obvious and made to look so much more horrific until she was able to look at Louie and see without him saying it, that he had never been the monster she was. And being next to someone so different then herself only made her feel more ashamed. "I wish I was as good as him. I wish I hadn't done the things I have done."

"Do you remember when you said you were a monster the night you told us the truth? And how you have forever hated yourself?" Godric asked, his voice showing he was trying to be as tactful as possible with this question. "I was just curious as to why you would say such a thing."

"I don't know. I guess it's because I stopped being that innocent, sweet girl you and Louie loved the night I was turned. And there would never be a point of turning back. This was who I was and who I was going to be. It may not seem like it, but I have a dark past and I was very lonely and sad for a long time." Helen explained, feeling a break in the wall she had put up earlier in her conversation with Louie. She had been trying to put on some kind of perfect facade when she saw how much his soul was still in tact and she hadn't wanted to divulge any secrets. But with Godric it was different, he was much more easier to talk to about her past because it was obvious he was harboring his own darkness deep inside him. If there was anyone she could confess to besides her own progeny, then it was Godric. "I'm not proud of how I acted that darkness out."

"You're right, it is hard to believe since I did know you as this angelic Faerie. But then I have to remember that you're a thousand year old vampire and when you're that old, before the creation of synthetic blood, of course you would have to have killed some humans. It was survival in those times." Godric nodded in understanding just like she knew he would. Even a thousand years ago, when she saw him in his darkest and most violent times, he still had been more open minded then almost any one she had know. And it was a trait still found in him today. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Actually it is. I didn't just kill humans to survive. Sometimes I did it just because I could." Helen turned her head away so she couldn't see his expression as she said this. She knew it wouldn't be something he would want or expect to hear coming from her mouth. He had this idea in his head of how she was and before she was turned, she had never done anything wrong or improper in her life. He had always seen her as this sweet and kind person. And the last thing he would want to hear is of her killing humans just for the fun of it. " I was bad Godric. And I'm so ashamed of what I did those first few hundred years."

"That's who you use to be, not who you are now. No vampire has a clean past, not even someone like you." Godric pointed out, shaking his head after she had turned back to look at him. "And besides, I can vouch for that statement because I too did a great amount of things in my early years that I regret."

"Wow, I almost forgot that side of you existed." Helen sat up in surprise as what he had done came back to her and she was amazed that it had slipped her mind. But it just wasn't as important as who he was now and who he had been with her. Yes she had been shocked when he had revealed the children he had hunted and the humans he had also killed just for the sake of doing it. But that side of him had often been forgotten because he was also very often kind and considerate with her. "It's hard to think you did anything bad when you've always been so calm and proper..."

"I was always on my best behavior with you even after you knew about my past misdeeds." Godric laughed with his fingers running through his short hair.

"It's nice to know you don't judge me because I wasn't always so good." Helen let him know, feeling like she had a confidant in her old friend. It was something she had a feeling she would need in the weeks to come. "It makes me feel better to unload it."

"Talking about what happened and what we've done is the only way to let this go so we can fix it." Godric reached over and circled his fingers around her wrist and squeezed it as gently as if she had still been human. " We all have our own demons. All 3 of us."

"I don't want him to know that side of me, that's not the girl he once loved." Helen frowned at the mention of Louie being brought back into the mix and knowing her as this once evil person. "He would never look at me the same way again."

"You're still in love with him aren't you? After all these years..." Godric sat up suddenly, a grin taking over his face as he seemed triumphant that this idea was correct at least to him. "I can see it in your eyes."

"You don't know what you're seeing." Helen shook her head, turning to look at his face with a raised eyebrow. "I don't even love myself. The only vampire I love is my progeny. That's the extent of my ability to love."

"Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?" Godric asked, clearly not convinced as they both ended the conversation and turned their focus to the sky just barely visible through the tree branches.

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in London<span>_

"So I have a confession to make." Eric said to me in a hushed tone, in what was almost a whisper as we walked arm in arm through the dark and nearly empty streets of this beautiful city where for once we did not have to look over our shoulders constantly for an unseen enemy. It was such a refreshing change that I found myself walking closer to Eric with my cheek against his arm in a near sleep walk as I was so relaxed. But at his statement that he had something important to admit, I stood straight up and pulled him off to the side of the stone walkway and looked up at him curiously. There was no one within hearing distance when he spoke again. "I want to get married soon, like really soon."

"I know that. We've already discussed this remember?" I asked with a smirk, but I couldn't help but feel the same flutter in my stomach any time one of us mentioned our impending marriage. It was everything and the only thing I wanted in my life and I was going to get it sooner rather then later. I smiled up at him again. "I want us to get married soon too..."

"No, you're not getting what I'm saying. I want to get married soon, as in like while we are here." He said without even the slightest hesitation, shocking me not only because of the words, but with the certainty he said them. "I don't want to wait. I want us to do this now."

"Ok, what the hell just happened here?" I demanded, breaking away from him and crossing my arms in confusion. "What brought this on? I know we were talking about it earlier, but I thought we were just joking."

"I wasn't completely joking. I was mostly being serious." He admitted, scratching his slicked back blonde hair with one hand before saying. "So what do you say?"

"About what?"

"Getting married while we're here." He insisted, raising his eyebrows in question as he reached out for me. "You do still want to marry me right?"

"Of course I do. I just think we're jumping into this a little fast." I told him, running my hands through my hair, trying to make sense of all this. "I mean, we haven't even been engaged a week yet and you want to get married within the next few days? Even if we waited a few months, that would still be really soon..."

"I told you I don't want to wait. Waiting any longer could rock the boat and ruin this perfect rhythm we have going on. And you know I'm right. When have we ever had too much calmness in our lives?" Eric stared me right in the eye in such a way that I couldn't even begin to start to argue with him. He was right, things were never calm all that long in our world and it wouldn't be long until something else came along to rock our lives up. And the next time could really make things permanent in taking one of our lives. And I did not want to come close to death again without getting what I want and that was marrying Eric. But to do it this soon? In another country? With no one besides us there? It was crazy. But he didn't think so. "This is the right time for us, because it's now. And we want to be together forever, so what does it matter if we do it tomorrow night or 3 months from now?"

"I guess it doesn't really matter." I mumbled, biting on my bottom lip in earnest as I tried to calm my racing nerves. It's not that I didn't want to marry Eric soon, it was just all happening so fast and I couldn't see or think clearly. "I just think we should talk about this more thoroughly."

"Yea, I wish I could do that. But if you look at the sky, you will see that it is lightening up and that means the sun will rise soon. So talking? Yea, its a no go." Eric said almost triumphantly, turning me around and nodded to the sky where it was getting lighter and I stomped my foot in frustration at Eric getting the last say before he would have to go and hide for the day. He was laughing at me as I turned around to look at him. He didn't waste any time in scooping me up in his arms, intending on bringing me with him as we rushed back to the apartment. But before he took off, he looked down at me and said. "Do something for me then. At least think about it. Take the day and look at all sides of it and if you really think it through and you still don't think its a good idea then I will let it go."

"When have you ever let anything go?" I asked stubbornly but I couldn't hide the smile on my lips. Eric was trying, that was obvious. He had evolved so much since the beginning of our relationship and the least I could do was at least take his suggestion into consideration. I sighed and nodded. "Alright, I will spend the day thinking about it."

Was I crazy for wanting to go through with it?


	2. Don't look away

**Chapter 2 Don't look away**

"Oh man, this is not going to be easy." I mumbled to myself the next day as I laid there in bed staring up at the ceiling with my hands under my head while Eric laid beside me, seemingly dead for the day while I struggled to come to terms with the suggestion he made just a few hours ago. I turned my face towards his still form, taking in the sight of his peaceful expression and sighed. "How am I suppose to make this choice with you?"

I should have been sleeping at this point, it was well after dawn by the time Eric had fallen into sleep mode for the day and given that I had been up all night with him, I should have been asleep at his side as well. But that wasn't the case because as soon as he dropped that idea on me that he wanted to get married right away, I hadn't been able to stop my mind from going off in a million different directions and that in turn had kept me from rest. But that was ok for now because I didn't want to waste precious time sleeping when I could be using it to think through this crazy idea he had come up with. And I needed as much time as I could get because Eric would be expecting an answer by tonight and if I ended up wanting to go through with it while we were here then I needed to decide today. We were only going to be here for another few days and if we were going to take this next step, then I needed to be sure. And the only way to be sure was to look at every aspect of it.

I won't lie, when Eric first said those words to me, my very immediate thought was how romantic it was. Eric didn't often let himself get vulnerable with me and say directly what was on his mind, at least not before I read his thoughts. But to hear him offer it up first was so nice and sweet. It was a change to how he use to be with me and I recognized how hard it was for him to get to that point. Eric wasn't the type of vampire to want this kind of relationship, especially not with how many women he had been with in his lifetime. So when he asked me to marry him and then wanted to make it official so soon, was a true testament to how much he had changed. It was so romantic that someone like him didn't want to waste any more time in taking the next step with me. I was so moved by that and I was really honest with myself, then I have to admit that I didn't really want to wait either. I mean, look at our history. There had never been a really long stretch of time where trouble didn't come calling and I had a feeling it would always be like that. But it that was the case then I didn't want to be looking over my shoulder alone any more. I wanted Eric there as my husband and with our luck and history, if we waited then we may never get the chance to do it. Something was always trying to get at us, trying to keep us from this moment. And I wanted to basically say to the universe to go fuck off and let me have my happy ending.

But even with that way of thinking, my mind couldn't help but go in the opposite direction and think of the consequences my actions would have if I went ahead and married Eric this soon. Because no matter how hard I tried to suppress it, my logical side kicked in and I couldn't help but think of how I always envisioned my life turning out when it came to the idea of marriage.

I wasn't one of those girls who grew up constantly thinking about marriage but it did cross my mind on occasion and whenever it did, I had always thought that my friends and family would be there. I never really wanted a big ceremony, but I always wanted to have plenty of people around to witness this next stage in my life. But it was mostly Sookie I was thinking about and how hurt she would be that she wasn't thought of when I was considering this. If anything, she was the main constant that had remained in my image of marriage over the years as our family died out and our friends came and gone but she had always been there in my mind when I thought of getting married. And I knew that if I made it official and she wasn't there for it then it would hurt her feelings. It was one of the things that was keeping me from immediately agreeing to it.

"This is too hard. I'm too torn." I grumbled, rolling over on my side to face Eric. He looked so peaceful and out of it, unaware of the confusion I was in. I felt my face stretch out in a yawn and it occurred to me that if I got a few hours of sleep then perhaps my thinking would be a little more clear. So I moved over so I could lay my head on his chest and closed my eyes, vowing to think it through more when I woke up.

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Shreveport<span>_

"You know, we have to stop meeting like this."

Louie couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face as he looked ahead on the path he had been walking on and caught sight of Helen's dazzling blonde hair peeking out from behind a tree as she stepped in his way. He hadn't been expecting to see her at all tonight when he had set out from his house to spend the night walking in the woods. But there she was just like she had been the first night they crossed paths and just like the other night, she was alone. He found that as he came to a stop, that he was actually glad to see her. Ever since they had learned the truth, he had been gradually trying to get to know her again and each time they talked, he got closer to knowing her the way he use to. Granted it was at a much slower pace then it was the first time a thousand years ago, mostly because there had been so many years where they had been separated and they were quite literally strangers to one another. But there was also the element of them both having their guard up at the moment. He because he wasn't quite ready to let her all the way in after her betrayal, but he wasn't sure why she was holding back. He knew she was, he could still tell that even after all this time. He could only hope that more nights spent talking would break down those walls she had up against him for whatever reason that may be.

"I think you're the one who is purposely going out of her way to run into me." He said jokingly to her, watching as she approached him with an easy smile on her face reminiscent of her old self. He wouldn't say that out loud of course. "And correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that stalking is illegal in this state."

"You should be honored that I would take the time to seek you out." She shot back, her lips twitching upward into a slightly devious smirk that he wouldn't have thought she was capable of making. "I don't spy on many vampires unless I find them particularly interesting."

"Then I guess I'm the lucky one." Louie stated with his arms crossed, enjoying the light banter they had going on. Their first few moments of reunion had been heavy with emotion, so it was nice to take a break from that and just be a little bit carefree. "Well, besides Godric of course."

"Oh yea, can't forget him." Helen nodded, her smile brightening at the mention of the other vampire and for just a second, seeing that smile on her face because of Godric made a flash of jealousy go through him. But it soon went away as Helen asked. "So how are things going with you two? Are you mending your friendship?"

"I guess so, I mean it's such a slow progress that you almost wouldn't think it's even happening but it is. I just think it will be a while before he and I can ever hope to be the way we use to be." Louie explained, thinking of his last talk with Godric. Even though they had both agreed they wanted to mend their bond, Louie knew it was going to take more then just one talk before things were fixed. And perhaps it never fully would get back to its previous strong status, but Louie was at least willing to give it a shot, especially since Godric wasn't completely at fault for their estrangement. He looked back up at Helen and asked "So what about you and him? Are you guys bonding again?"

"Like you said, it's a slow progression back to how we all use to be and while I want my friendship with him to be back to normal, I know it won't happen overnight or any time soon." Helen replied, tucking her long hair back behind her ear before speaking again. "It's getting there, but I have to be patient with both of you. It's not about me, it's about you and him."

"It will take time, but it will happen. You'll see." Louie found himself saying, wanting to give her hope so she would know her efforts weren't going to be in vain. He knew eventually he would forgive her, once they got to know each other again. And he wasn't going to pretend like he would forever hold a grudge because that wouldn't be the truth. He still cared for her and one day they would find their way back to each other and perhaps learn to love each other again. But until then, they would try being friends first. He forced a smile out on his lips before saying. "So where is that ever absent progeny of yours? Did you send him out to the bar again?"

"Not tonight. He's actually out...feeding on humans. He never could get use to the synthetic blood." Helen told him hesitantly, her words cutting through his head and he actually found a slight frown on his face from this explanation. Helen must have guessed what was going on in his mind because she hurriedly said. "But don't worry, he knows to be careful. He doesn't drain the humans if that's what you're thinking. He just likes to find the willing ones to drink from."

"I was just surprised that's all. I can't picture you having a progeny that you allow to feed on humans like that." Louie answered honestly, trying not to make a face that would betray his thoughts. He didn't think Gabriel was bad at all, in fact the few times he had been in the younger vamp's presence, Louie found him to be sort of like himself. But it was the fact that Helen let her child feed on human blood that was the problem. But he would try to hide that. "But then again I have a hard time picturing you with a progeny at all."

"He needs to feed and I'm not going to deny him that just because some people think it's wrong." Helen said almost defensively, taking on a look befitting to a vampire who was fiercely protective of her child. She looked at him and shrugged. "Besides, we all did it at some point before True Blood was created, it was for survival. Gabriel just chooses to survive on real blood. Nothing wrong with that."

"I'm not judging anyone, I was just surprised that's all and you seemed to take it personally." Louie frowned upon seeing her reaction to his statement. She jumped on it so fast that it made him almost suspicious. "Why? Is that how you survive still?"

"Come on Louie, we may have been apart for a thousand years and you didn't know I had become a vampire, but let's be serious..." Helen raised her eyebrows at him almost in amusement. "Can you picture me being that way?"

"I guess not." Louie pressed his lips together and drew his brows down low. Something was off in the way she answered it and he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. "It just seems weird that a progeny would still hunt humans and a maker doesn't."

"Well, Gabriel and I may have a close bond, but we're different vampires." Helen moved her small shoulders upward again. "What he does and what I do are of our own choosing. We try not to influence each others choices."

"And in all the years since you turned him, you never..." Louie felt that old flash of jealousy go through him as a foreign but still relevant thought passed through his head. "I mean, you and Gabriel were never...together?"

"Are you serious? Gabriel is my child. I would never..." Helen's jaw fell open before she could even complete her sentence as she appeared outraged that he would even think that. She had a small glare on her face when she spoke again. "I have never been intimate with Gabriel, so don't even go there."

"Ok, calm down." Louie held up his hands defensively. "I was merely asking out of curiosity."

"Sure you were."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in London<span>_

"Oh god what a day it has been." I grumbled to myself as I laid in a heap on the bottom of the bath tub, trying and failing to clear my head long enough to make a sound decision about what I wanted to do. This was why I had decided to take a bath, hoping the hot water and sweet smelling soaps would help relax me but it was too no avail. The water had cooled down and I was no closer to figuring out my end decision then I had when I had been in bed earlier today. It also didn't help that I was constantly going back and forth about whether this was a good idea of not.

My mind kept on replaying all the events that had transpired over the last year and even before that, since Eric and I had first got together. So much had happened in such a short time and the two of us had both changed. I barely recognized the person I use to be when I thought about the beginning when the trouble had started with the Fellowship of the Sun, I was so timid and passive and I rarely ever stuck up for myself. I hardly was strong enough to leave Eric when it was unclear if he wanted Sookie or me. And I hadn't thought I could handle the move to Mystic Falls or any of the events that came after that leading up to Godric's resurrection. But I had taken it all in stride and dealt with it better then I could have imagined. I was learning to take life's blows and come back from it, something I don't think I would have been able to do had I not started this whole journey with Eric. And I was grateful for it.

But I think it was Eric who had changed the most in our time together and apart. In the beginning he was this cocky, egotistical, manipulative vampire who was use to getting his way and truth be told not that much had changed in that aspect of his personality. But what had evolved was his ability to open up to a few select group of people and I was lucky enough to be included in that group. I knew his history with women and I knew how he could be and I was hesitant to get involved with him from the start because of this. But then things gradually started to change and I saw a different side of him. He was willing to admit that he cared about me and was more then willing to protect me at any cost. Not to mention that when he finally admitted his love for me after my rescue from Steve Newlin, it really changed things. And every moment after that had slowly but surely brought us closer together. Even the bad things had helped make our bond stronger even when I couldn't tell it at the time. And it was this change in Eric over time that had brought us to this point and now it was up to me to decide where to take it next.

After all we have been through with secrets and lies, battles and pain, reunions and re-emergences, it was only fair that we deserved to get something for ourselves for once. And this wedding could be it, if you could even call it a wedding. Eric wasn't the type of vampire to want a huge crowd around him when he married and I knew he would only agree to it if he thought it was what I wanted. He loved me enough to do something that made him uncomfortable and I found that so incredibly sweet. Not to mention I kind of liked the idea of doing something out of character for myself. I was always so responsible and thought everything through and never did anything spur of the moment. So to go through with this would be the ultimate stepping out of my comfort zone. And besides, even if we waited another few weeks or months, the end result would still be the same. He and I would still end up being married and probably without anyone else there.

So why not go ahead and do it?

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Shreveport<span>_

"Can you believe he actually said that?" Helen exploded at Godric the moment she had finished relaying her conversation with Louie to him and was now awaiting his reaction to back up her reasoning that Louie was crazy. "I mean he actually insinuated that he thought Gabriel and I had slept together at some point."

"You need to calm down and not take this so personally. It's not that big a deal." Godric said gently to her, speaking for the first time since she had met up with him on the outskirts of town to talk about what had happened. And she had left no detail out, needing to get it all out of her system so she could make sense of it all. And he had simply stood there on that empty stretch of road with nothing to see but fields of tall grass, while she stalked around him in circles, yelling about the conversation she had had earlier that night. And in typical Godric fashion, he had responded in a calm and collected manner. "So why are you making it a bigger deal then it has to be?"

"Because he almost seemed jealous, that's why!" Helen exclaimed, her voice echoing through the quiet night air as she whirled around to face the vampire she had come to for comfort. "He sounded jealous at the thought of me being intimate with any other vampire besides him. Even my own progeny."

"He probably was jealous. And even though he and I haven't been friends all this time, even I can still see that he loves you. I don't think he ever stopped." Godric smiled so brightly at her that it took her by surprise, but not nearly as much as his words did. She got the feeling that Louie still cared about her. But love? That was something she doubted and she couldn't blame him. Not after what she had done. "Louie won't admit it to you or even himself, but it's obvious enough if you look closely."

"Well that doesn't really mean anything now does it?" She almost snapped, closing her eyes tightly as she rubbed the sides of her head, imagining a pain coming on from the emotions running through her this entire night. "But it wasn't just that part of the conversation that bothered me. It was when we were talking about how Gabriel was out feeding on human blood tonight and how I have allowed him to do that that made the conversation tense. And once that topic came up, it brought back some very fresh memories."

"What kind of memories?" Godric questioned, his young face growing curious as he stepped closer to her. "From your past?"

"Remember how I said I hated myself for what I had done? Well, these memories are constant reminders of some of my worst moments." Helen explained, her shoulders sinking under the weight of what the talk with Louie had brought up. She never wanted to remember what she had done once she decided to show herself again and she certainly never imagined having this conversation with Godric, someone she once had a very intimate history with. But with how close they had been getting in the last few days, she felt like if there was anyone she could talk to about this then it would be him. She couldn't look at him as she said this. "I use to like and I still kind of like to lure men into my clutches. Or more accurately into my bed for the sole purpose of feeding on fresh blood. I use to like taking my pain and anger out on them before I would finally kill them. I don't torture them anymore, but I still seduce these men and feed on them. And Louie bringing up the idea of intimacy made all those memories come flooding back."

"And now you're worried that things will get worse with him if he knows you not only still feed on humans but also because you've been intimate with people other then him." Godric nodded in complete understanding, not judging her in the slightest like she knew he would. He had his own dark past to contend with and was in no position to pass judgment on anyone's actions. And that made it easier to unload to him. But his clear insight on her worries about Louie knowing this side of her was so on point it was scary. "Am I right?"

"You are so right, almost terrifyingly right." She couldn't stop her mouth from dropping open. It amazed her that Godric still seemed in tune to her thoughts after all this time. She raised an eyebrow at him. "How did you nail that one so well?"

"Despite a thousand year old separation, I still know how your mind works and how you still feel about Louie." Godric grinned brightly at her, his expression putting her a little more at ease. "Face it Helen, I know you too well."

"I'm glad about that." She replied, pushing her hair back when it blew in front of her face. She knew she wasn't a mystery to Godric even though they hadn't seen each other this whole time. "It's nice to know we haven't completely lost touch."

"I don't think we ever will." Godric reached out and patted her shoulder in the friendliest of ways. "You and I will work through our issues, but I think its safe to say by now that we are going to be friends for life."

* * *

><p><em><span>Bon Temps<span>_

"Well...this has been quite an interesting evening." Nan Flanagan's cool and collected voice said out loud across the table as she sat facing Sookie and Bill with her eyebrows raised in question. "Care to speak at all tonight my King?"

"Only to inquire why you are exactly here." Bill spoke up for the first time since the AVL representative had arrived on their front porch with an armful of paperwork and a guarded expression on her face that suggested that she had more to say then to simply make things formal and legal with his new position. Sookie had the common sense to stay quiet during the time Nan was speaking but she stayed close to her husband's side as per his request. Bill kept his hand on her knee under the table to ensure they were always connected in some way. "I have signed all the formal paperwork that brings me to position as King and I have been informed of my duties so I have to question why you are still here."

"Ok you got me. I do have one other matter to discuss." Nan admitted, her expression never changing besides a small flicker of triumph in her eyes that made Sookie wonder just what the female vamp had in store for her husband. "We have problem here in Shreveport. There is a group of necromancers meeting up in a shop downtown and I believe they could prove to be a threat to vampires."

"If they haven't caused any trouble nor made any attempt on a vampire's life then I see no reason to think they ever will." Bill responded in the way that Sookie knew he would. Bill tended to let cooler heads prevail in the face of trouble or at least in what other people perceived to be trouble. He may have been hundreds of years younger then Nan, but he wasn't about to stand down from her. "There is no reason for us to put ourselves in their business unless we have a reason to."

"We do have a reason to, they're necromancers and at any moment they could decide to turn around and use their magic to control us." Nan exclaimed, her closed fist coming down on the table top so loudly that Sookie found herself jumping. "They are powerful enough to do that. You know the history of necromancers Bill. You know what they are capable of."

"That was hundreds of years ago, they don't practice that kind of witchcraft any more. They're peaceful now." Bill insisted, clearly not willing to believe that there was as much of a threat as Nan thought there was. "Who are these people anyway? Where is their place of practice?"

"It's called Moon Goddess Emporium, not that it makes a difference what the hell its called." Nan waved off Bill's comment as it meant nothing to her or the situation but it was this name that made Sookie sit up straight and speak for the first time.

"Moon Goddess Emporium? I know that place." She stated so casually that she barely noticed the sharp looks both Bill and Nan were giving her. "A woman I work with is a witch and she has mentioned that place before in passing. Her name is Holly and she worked along side vampires in this battle a few months ago. And if she belongs to this group then there is no way that they can be a threat."

"Yes well that's all warm and fuzzy but your opinion doesn't really matter when it comes to this type of business." Nan replied harshly, rolling her eyes sarcastically as she dismissed Sookie's statement with a nod. "The fact is that there has never really been a gathering of necromancers in many years and now that there has, we have to take it seriously. And if we don't then it could prove to be our undoing."

"So what do you suggest I do?" Bill asked, leaning forward with his hands clasped together on the table as he stared intently at her. "Go storming in there and demand that they stop meeting?"

"Of course not, taking them by surprise like that could be the catalyst that we don't need." Nan frowned, tapping her long red fingernails on the wood as she sat back in the chair. "I want you to have it investigated and if they prove to be practicing necromancy, then you will intervene."

"Alright, I will look into it." Bill agreed, not looking happy about it but probably thinking it was best not to fight Nan on this. He turned his head away from Nan and looked at Sookie for a moment before saying. "I will gather all the Sheriffs in the state and discuss how to best deal with this matter."

"Get Northman first, he is quite a crafty little bitch when he wants to be. He could be a good ally for you." Nan stated with a coy smile, getting up from her seat and gathering up the files stacked in front of her. "Where is he by the way? Apparently he hasn't shown his face at Fangtasia in a few nights and that little whore of a progeny of his is in charge."

"He is on vacation...with his fiancee." Sookie offered as a way to move Nan along and out of their house if she had answers to whatever questions she put out there. "But he should be returning very soon."

"Hmm, well make sure you inform him of the situation as soon as he does. I want him involved with this." Nan told them as she headed towards the front door but before she left, she looked back at them and said with a smirk. "Don't screw this up Bill. Or there will be consequences."

And with that she left, slamming the door behind her and leaving Sookie to wonder if Bill had made a real mistake in accepting this position as King.

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in London<span>_

I was sitting on a chair across the room from the bed, with my legs crossed and my hands playing with my hair just waiting for the moment for Eric to wake up so we could talk. A lot had been going through my mind today and I had finally arrived at a decision. Now I just needed him to wake up so I could tell him.

It wasn't an easy decision to make. But then again nothing in my life had ever been easy. And deciding when to marry shouldn't have been difficult, but it had been. There were just so many factors to take in that it made the choice harder then it probably should have been. Maybe I was over thinking it, maybe I was over analyzing every little thing. But I knew if I hadn't taken the day to think it all the way through then I would have made a decision that wasn't based on a thorough exploration of how I felt. And I didn't want to move forward with any regrets. So I thought about it and obsessed over it and generally argued every side of it I could and it was only an hour ago when I had arrived at my final choice. And I felt at peace with it. Even knowing that when I finally said it out loud, it was going to bring out hurt feelings, but that couldn't be helped. For once I was thinking about what I wanted and this was what I felt was going to be right for me. I just had to wait for Eric to wake up so I could...

"If I wasn't a thousand year old vampire, and I woke up and found you sitting there staring at me, then I would be beyond freaked out." Eric's voice interrupted me from my haze and brought me back out of my head only to find him sitting on the edge of the bed with his arms crossed over his chest and a questioning smirk on his face. "So what's the deal? Why are you just sitting there like that?"

"I was waiting for you to wake up so I could talk to you and I just sort of got distracted by my own thoughts." I admitted, getting up from the chair feeling thrilled that he was finally awake so I could talk to him about my choice. I walked over to the bed and stood before him, a little apprehensive about having this talk as I knew it would set in motion things that couldn't be undone now that I had decided. "Eric, I thought about what you said last night. And I did think about it all day and I..."

"You decided you didn't want to do it. Right?" Eric sounded calm but I could see in his eyes that he was feeling disappointed before I was even allowed to finish speaking. I couldn't read his thoughts as he had completely blocked me off but I knew him well enough to know how he was going to react. "You don't want to get married while we're here. It's not you and I should have known that before I even suggested..."

"Eric Northman, will you shut the hell up?" I exclaimed, not able to suppress my laughter as I stepped forward and grabbed the sides of his face in my palms, forcing him to keep his eyes on me before I said. "You didn't let me finish. Because if you had then you would have heard me say that I do want to marry you here."

"You do?" Eric's eyes watched my face as if he was feeling suspicious that I was just toying with him and he remained guarded for a while and just stared at me. But after a while it seemed to dawn on him that I wasn't taking it back and I felt his fingers curl over my wrists as he pulled my hands away from his face. "You're actually serious about this? You want to do something crazy and spontaneous for once?"

"Spontaneous, yes. Crazy no. It's not crazy because I've wanted to marry you for a long time and whether we wait a few weeks or months or we do it while we're here, the end result is still the same. I still get you as my husband." I said with a smile, allowing him to pull me in close and I settled on his lap with my arms locked around his neck and my face leaning against his. It had taken a lot for me to come to this decision but once I allowed it in, I knew it was right for me and for us as a couple. Eric and I were going to be our own family, our own unit. An didn't waste any more time not making it official. I looked in to his eyes and before I could talk myself out of it, I said. "So what do you say? Are you still in?"

"You know I am. I did suggest it after all." He reminded me, his blue orbs suddenly flaring up with excitement and I was flooded with an unexpected surge of happiness that wasn't my own. His arms tightened around me, clearly thrilled that he was getting what he wanted. "This is great! When exactly did you plan on wanting to do this? The last night we're here or the..."

"How about tomorrow night?" I asked in interruption, causing him to lean back away from me in clear and obvious shock. It was a very rare occasion when I was able to stump the great Eric Northman and tonight was one of those moments. And I have to say I was liking it. I placed my hands on his shoulders to get his attention back. "Before you say anything, just know I thought it through and I am totally..."

"Yes." Eric replied quickly, nodding his head with vigor.

"You didn't even let me finish..."

"Yes yes yes. My answer is yes a million times over. The explanation as to why is just wasted words." Eric cut me off again, waving off my statement with his hands. His excitement was as evident in his voice as it was in his movements. "Let's get married tomorrow night. But only if you really want that."

"Trust me..." I began slowly, drawing myself closer to him. "There's nothing I want more then that."

**A/N: HURRAY ! they are getting married and its about damn time, wouldn't you guys say? please review and i will get to work on that next chapter**


	3. Hold on to me love

**Chapter 3 Hold on to me love**

"Miss? Are you sure you don't need any help?" A kindly older woman's voice asked me through the closed door of the changing room as I stood there amongst what seemed like miles of white fabric. "Do you need anything?"

"No I'm alright. Thank you." I called out, staring at myself as in the mirror as I listened to her footsteps fade away around the corner and left me alone in silence as I contemplated how I had spent the last few hours this afternoon in this little dress shop doing something I never imagined in my life I would be doing.

Shopping for my wedding dress.

It was so weird to think of how fast this came about even despite what Eric and I had decided to do. Once I had suggested getting married tonight and he had agreed to it, we had immediately set in motion things that needed to be done in order to make this as normal as it could possibly be. Eric had disappeared for a while and when he had returned to the apartment, he had stunned me with the amount of things he had managed to get done. In the 90 minutes he was gone, he had somehow gotten the necessary paperwork in order to make this legal, found the rings we would be exchanging in the ceremony and the biggest challenge of all. He actually found someone to perform the ceremony, which I suspected he may have glamored the man into agreeing to, but I didn't ask. I was just excited that things were moving along without a problem. The wedding, although short, would take place night right after the sun went down at the apartment. The only thing left for me to do was finding a dress and veil to wear and that was the thing that was proving to be the real problem.

I didn't know what I was expecting when I walked into the store this afternoon, but I guess I thought that I would just know which dress was meant for me when I saw it. But that wasn't the case. I went through each and every rack, taking down any dress that caught my eye and somehow managed to pull it all into the largest dressing room in the back to start trying them on. That's where I thought I would find a more clear answer, that maybe trying on each different kind of dress would make my decision easier. But I was wrong, nothing was sticking. I tried on lace and silk, loose and tight, long and short. Not one of them was working for me. It's not that I thought I looked bad, it was more that nothing screamed out to me that this was the dress I should be wearing when I got married.

I sighed and hung the last of the dresses back up on the hanger and grabbed my purse before I left the dressing room. I put the hangers on the return rack outside the doorway and headed over the front desk to where the shop owner was standing behind, intending on asking her if there was any other shops I could go to in the few hours I had left. She looked up with a smile as I approached but when she saw that my arms were empty, she frowned.

"Did you not find anything you liked dear?" She asked gently, setting down the pen she was holding and stood up straight as I came up to the desk across from her. "You took a lot of time looking and tried on a load of dresses. I thought you would have found one that suited you."

"They were all beautiful, but nothing really stood out to me." I replied honestly, running my fingers through my hair trying to figure out exactly what I thought I wanted. "I guess it's because I never really thought about what my wedding dress would look like."

"Well you are awfully young, not many girls your age really think about that sort of thing." She said with a wry smile, sending me the kind of look a grandmother would give her granddaughter before she went on. "What about your fiancee? What's he like? If I know his type maybe I can help you find something. Is he modern? Traditional?"

"Yea, he was sort of traditional a long time ago I suppose." I tried hard not to laugh as I said this because I'm sure this woman wasn't thinking I was referring to a vampire but obviously I was. It was funny because I don't think even a thousand years ago that Eric was ever considered traditional. "He's sort of complicated to describe because he's a vampire."

"Oh..." The owner's face instantly went dark the moment I mentioned Eric's true nature and I didn't even have to read her mind to know how she felt about that. It was written all over her face as well as in her words. "You know, you seem like a very nice girl. Too nice to be mixed up in that business."

"You wouldn't be the first person to say that, but I wouldn't be with him if I wasn't sure of this." I told her, feeling the need to defend Eric to this woman. It annoyed me that there were still people out there who passed judgment on vampires before they even met them. And yes Eric was one of the more complicated ones, but that didn't give this woman the right to say anything. "He's a good person and..."

"No...All vampires are bad no matter what act they put on." The woman interrupted me, her eyebrows drawn low stubbornly, a true switch to the nice person who had greeted me when I first walked in. "You should get out of this while you still can, before you're in too deep."

"I've already been in too deep and I haven't run away yet." I frowned, feeling deeply insulted and offended by what she was saying and I stepped back. "You have no right to pass judgment on him. No right at all."

And then I turned on my heels and walked out the door in a huff.

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Shreveport<span>_

"So I want to ask you something, but I don't want you to think it's me attacking you. But I have to ask it because I can't get it out of my head." Louie said slowly to the blonde vampire sitting beside him in the quiet night, taking notice of the way she turned to face him with her eyebrows raised and her face guarded as if she were fearing the very thing he was about to say.

He had called her earlier that night so they could meet up and spend time together as they had been doing for the past week. He knew these nightly visits were going to be the only way that they could ever hope to regain a sense of normalcy in their lives and in these moments were how they were going to get to know one another again. They were strangers to each other but each time they came in contact, that distance between them grew just a little bit smaller. At least that's what Louie believed until he really sat down to think about. Because the truth was that he really wasn't getting to know her again, she wasn't really offering any real substances to her life and he found that a little odd. It was like she was holding back and he didn't understand why. He hadn't spoken about it tonight when they first met up because he didn't want to ruin the nice air of calmness they had hanging over him. But as the hours went on and the more his thoughts turned to how little he knew about the new Helen, the more he was tempted to say something. And he knew he was about to ruin this moment by giving voice to the suspicions he had.

"Uh Louie? Are you still in there?" Helen's voice broke into his head, bringing him back into the present where she was waving her hands around in front of his face to get his attention. "You said you wanted to ask me something."

"Yea, I guess I did. I just got caught up in my own thoughts." He admitted, shaking his head to clear the haze from his mind as he tried to bring this up tactfully but he knew there really was no other way to say but the obvious. "Don't take this as a personal attack, but why don't you talk to me?"

"What are you talking about? We talk all the time, that's all we ever do." Helen exclaimed, her pale and beautiful face lighting up in amusement and her lips parted in a grin that said she wasn't taking this as seriously as he was. "I mean, we see each other every night and talk until we have to part ways. So I don't understand why you think we don't talk."

"Ok, technically you're right, we do talk. We've talked about Godric and Gabriel and the way you allow your progeny to live. But never truly about you." He pointed out, frowning as he watched her face go from amused and back to guarded in a matter of seconds, proof that he had nailed something. "Somehow, we have managed to talk around you and your life as a vampire. We talk about other things in your life,but never about you. Why is that?"

"Because it doesn't really seem important. It's in the past with all the bad mistakes I made concerning you and I just want to leave it there. It's all about the present now." Helen insisted, her face twitching slightly that only a vampire could have picked up on. She was holding back again and it was more clear now that he had called her on it. "There's no need to talk about my early years."

"It is important to talk about your early years because whether you want to ignore them or not, they are still apart of you." Louie said, tilting his head in her direction, trying to figure out why she was so adamant about not talking about her thousand years as an immortal. "And the fact that you don't want to acknowledge makes me wonder what you're hiding."

"Hiding? I'm not hiding anything." Helen's face shot over to his, her green eyes flashing briefly with hurt mixed with anger and fury, an emotion he had rarely ever seen in her when she was just a Faerie. "Why would you say that?"

"Because you've never once mentioned what kind of vampire you were when you were first turned. And when you don't say anything about that time, it makes me think you did something that you're shamed of." He confessed, hating that he had allowed that thought to pass through his head but it was the truth. If she wasn't talking to him about that subject, then obviously there was something there that she was wasn't proud of. And if she couldn't talk to him about every aspect about her life, then how could they ever expect to become what they use to be. If he wanted them to be together then he wanted to take the bad with the good. And if there was something bad about her past then he wanted to know. "You can talk to me you know. About anything."

"I know that." She nodded, uncharacteristically moving away from him and crossing her arms. "There just isn't anything to tell. I lived like any vampire did in the beginning who is as old as I am. Nothing new to add to that."

"Ok, if you say so." Louie relented, willing to let this go for now as it was clear she was too stubborn to say anything at the moment. But in his mind he was far from dropping this. Way too far.

* * *

><p><em><span>A few hours later<span>_

"Does she talk to you?"

"Excuse me?" Godric lifted his head from the book he was reading just in time to see Louie walking through the doorway of his home in a way that could only be described as a man on a mission. Godric couldn't help but be surprised at seeing his old friend showing up out of nowhere, mostly because the blonde vamp always gave notice of his impending arrival. And here he was storming through the door way looking like he was ready to unload on someone. It was obvious that he had not had a good night, so Godric tossed aside the book and sat up just as Louie dropped down on the couch across from him. Godric frowned. "What exactly are you talking about? I'm a little lost here."

"I'm talking about Helen of course! Don't you listen?" Louie snapped, clearly agitated and it didn't take a genius to figure out that he had just come from talking to Helen and it did not go in the way he had wanted it to. "She is so damn infuriating."

"Hmm, I guess tonight's meeting didn't go so well." Godric did his best to keep his smile hidden because it would only further piss Louie off and his friend was already on edge as it was. "What happened? You guys have been getting along so well these past few weeks. What changed?"

"The only reason we have been getting along is because we never talked about anything too personal. And it never occurred to me until tonight that she has been avoiding telling me anything about herself specifically." Louie explained, running his fingers roughly through his short hair before gripping the sides of the couch so tightly the leather began to rip apart. "Which brings me to my original question."

"Remind me again what that was." Godric asked even though he knew perfectly well what Louie had asked. He was just hoping to put off the inevitable when it came to Helen and Louie, but it looked like that was quickly coming to an end.

"Don't try and bullshit me Godric, you never were very good at it." Louie settled him with a look that said he wasn't buying Godric innocent facade. "Just give me an honest answer. Does she talk to you?"

"What kind of information are you looking for?" Godric felt his face darken slightly at this statement. After everything that had happened, he felt protective over Helen even though she didn't need it. Louie seemed to be hell bent on knowing something and it was clear that Helen wasn't giving it to him so now Louie was going through him. And Godric had no intention of divulging it. If Helen couldn't be the one to say it, then Godric sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to do it. "Because I highly doubt she has given me any more information then she has given you."

"You're probably right about that." Louie agreed even though his face didn't release from its tense expression. "But still, tell me what she has been telling you. Because I know you two have been meeting up as well."

"She hasn't gotten too deep into her personal life before she came back." Godric lied, knowing it was for the best if he didn't let it slip that he knew a lifetime of secrets about Helen, more then Louie would know at this point. Helen needed to be the one to admit to her dark side, it wasn't Godric's place to do that. "She's talk about Gabriel and how she turned him and how they have bonded. She's told me about how she lets him live and behave. She even talks about you from time to time. But other then that, there has been nothing."

"That's about as much as I know." Louie grumbled, clearly deflating at the lack of information he wasn't getting. He sat back with his head leaned against his closed fist and sighed. "It seems like she is telling you the same things she is telling me, but I can't help but think that there is something more. Something that she is hiding."

"Maybe she is." Godric shrugged, not use to lying like he was. In fact, he had wanted to do things differently this time around with Louie. It wasn't just his friendship with Helen that he was trying to rebuild, it was with Louie too. And lying shouldn't have been an option. But it was tough when both those friendship intertwined. He didn't want to lie to Louie, but he also didn't want to betray Helen's trust by revealing her secrets. He looked across the room and shrugged. "Maybe she is hiding something because she is scared of the reaction it would get."

"But why? She's your friend and right now she is mine as well. At least until we can figure out how to be more..." Louie trailed off, temporarily distracted by his own thoughts which only made Godric smile. He knew Louie still loved Helen and Helen obviously felt the same if she was so worried about Louie's opinion of her. But these two had to work it out for themselves. "Why wouldn't she talk to us?"

"I have no idea." Godric shook his head, the lies still spilling from his mouth.

* * *

><p><em><span>45 minutes later<span>_

"He's getting suspicious, you know. He knows that he's not being told something. And I fear that he's going to get closer to knowing that I know more then he does."

Helen raised her eyebrows at the sudden statement that came from the otherwise quiet mouth of Godric. It was strange that he would say something like that when he had barely even said two words since he had shown up at the front door of the house she shared with her progeny. He had come in and sat down and that had pretty much been it. So now that he had spoken, it was to say something completely out of the blue. It would have been one thing if they were already talking about Louie, but they hadn't been talking about anything at all. But it was clear that Godric was thinking about it this whole time if he would say it so randomly.

"Are you talking about Louie?" She asked, more just for him to clarify even though she knew that was exactly it. She just didn't want acknowledge it yet because she was hoping this would just go away. "Or is it something else?"

"Let's be honest here Helen, we both know I was referring to Louie." Godric said pointedly, his eyes zeroing in on her face to the point where she couldn't look away. "When I showed up here tonight I had just come seeing him. And I don't think it requires more explanation to tell you that you came up in conversation."

"I figured it would, I was just hoping it wasn't in the direction that you were hinting at." Helen felt her face tighten, glad it was only Godric here to see her like this. She didn't often like to let down her guard in front of Gabriel, as she felt the need to keep up a calm facade and she certainly wasn't going to be vulnerable with Louie. Which left only Godric. "What did you guys talk about?"

"Mostly about you. Or the lack of what he knows about your life." Godric replied with a grimace, scratching the back of his head. "He says he's been wanting to know more about you and that you haven't been giving him anything really deep to go off of."

"Yea, he said almost the same thing to me tonight." Helen agreed, Louie's words echoing in her head like an annoying song. She knew sooner or later that it would come to this, that Louie would be yearning for more then just the light subjects that came up between them. But to hear that he was having the same conversation with Godric was just proof that he wasn't willing to just sit back and accept it anymore. "He wants me to talk to him, like really talk to him. But I just can't."

"I know, he tried to see if I knew anything more about you and I had no choice but to lie." Godric confessed, looking guilty and she couldn't help but feel responsible for that. "I basically let him think I only knew what he knew. I didn't think it was right for me to tell him your secrets."

"Thank you for that." Helen said quietly, bowing her head as the shame almost became too much. Godric was being a good friend to her even at the expense of his friendship with Louie. "I didn't want to have to put you in that position but I just don't want him to know that kind of stuff. I want him to remember me as that perfect little Faerie from a thousand years ago, not as this once brutal hinter that I still am from time to time."

"You're going to have to tell him sometime, you know. You can't keep this from him for too long. He will get more suspicious and if he is determined enough, then he will do whatever it takes to find out." Godric answered back with a shrug, his brown eyes filling up with what she could see was sympathy for her. "I know you're worried about what he may think of you when he knows, but it will only be worse if he finds out you've not only been hiding it from him, but you have been confiding in me this whole time."

"I know that and I will tell him. One of these days I will." Helen promised, knowing she would indeed follow through on that promise eventually,but the thought of doing it any time soon was just too much to even consider. She met Godric's eyes and felt her shoulder sink. "I love him and I want him to know every part of me, but I just worry that this will be the thing that keep him from loving me the way he did back then."

"He'll get over it, he always does. Louie is not one to hold that against you. He's a good guy, he always has been." Godric stated, backing up the one thing they couldn't disagree on. "Don't you remember how he saved your little brother Alec? The same vampire who did that is still present today. And that makes me hopeful that he won't turn away from you even after he knows your dark side."

"He saved Alec back then because he loved me and knew how much it would destroy me if I lost my little brother. It was a different time then it is now." Helen told him, remembering that night all too clearly. She never forgot how Louie jumped right into the middle of things to fight off those werewolves and then fed his own blood to her 7 year old brother to save his life. She remembered how it had changed everything for her, changed how she felt about him. She remembered it all right now a thousand years later. She just wished she could have that same mind frame right now and believe that Louie would still look at her the same, but she couldn't. "I just don't think he would feel the same about me if he knew I still fed on humans. And did everything else I told you about. How could he still love me?"

"How could he not?" Godric asked back, raising his eyebrows. "Explain to me how he could love you so much back then and in the entire time you two have been apart and then stop loving you now just because you gave in to your vampire nature in the beginning. You and I both know it wouldn't make a difference to him."

"I wish I had the same faith as you."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Bon Temps<span>_

"So I think we need to talk." Sookie stated to the figure that was leaning over the desk as she came into the room and stood in the doorway with her arms crossed. "It's kind of serious."

"Uh oh, that is never a good thing for me." Her husband said upon looking up from the pile of paper work he had been at work at for the past few hours and sent her a tight lipped smile as he pushed back from the desk. "You're not pregnant or something are you?"

"Ha ha, real funny." She replied sarcastically, uncrossing her arms and moving across the room to where she dropped down into a chair across from her husband and swept her hair out of her face. "If you actually thought I was pregnant, then you might as well say I cheated on you since you can't be the one to get my knocked up."

"A very good point." Bill nodded, a playful expression in his eyes as he sat back in his chair and cupped the arms of the his wooden seat. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"What we've been talking about for the past few days of course. The whole necromancer situation." Sookie retorted with a sigh, running her fingers through the ends of her long blonde ponytail as she thought about the new crisis they now had to resolve. She looked at Bill almost desperately. "How are we suppose to fix this?"

"There's no need for you to worry about this. It doesn't directly involve you." Bill tried to comfort her with his dismissive words but it did anything but serve its purpose. "It's vampire business."

"Oh don't even start that shit. It's not just vampire business when it involves you." Sookie shook her head, knowing her husband only meant well but she couldn't help but feel annoyed by what he was saying. "You're my husband now and when something happens with you, then it sure as hell involves me."

"My apologies, you're right. This situation affects more then just vampires." Bill quickly retracted, obviously digging in his heels to avoid an argument which she did appreciate. "But I'm not quite sure what I'm suppose to say to ease your worry."

"You don't really have to waste time on empty words. At least tell me you have some kind of plan." Sookie asked, flinging back her hair in frustration. Bill had to have come up with something. This was too big of a problem not to have something brewing in the background. "You have to be scheming something up ever since Nan came here with all guns a blazing."

"Of course I have a plan. I just may not be acting in the same outrageous fashion that she would want me to." Bill explained, his face showing his clear disdain for the AVL representative who had given him this position. "I don't want to act prematurely until I have a reason to."

"I'm glad you're thinking that way, at least someone will let cooler heads prevail in this situation." Sookie found herself nodding approvingly at her husband's direction. She was relieved that he wasn't immediately jumping into attack mode like some vampires would have. But she also knew that if this group was dangerous enough to warrant Nan's attention then it had to be serious. "But I know you too well. I know you're itching to get involved in this."

"I will admit that it's not a complete lie, but I also can't really decide anything until I have conducted a thorough investigation." Bill confessed even though it looked like he wanted to put this matter to rest right away. "I'm going to wait and gather the Sheriffs in the state before I decide what to do."

"Oh great, so as soon as Eric comes back from vacation with my cousin, you have to involve him in this. That's just perfect." Sookie wanted to throw something across the room but she managed to hold back. It just was very infuriating that another problem had risen up that could possibly end in a fight that needed Eric's involvement and in turn would affect Allison. It wasn't fair, those two had to flee the country just to get a break from trouble so they could spend time together. And the moment they return, Bill had to drop this bomb on them. "I'm not even going to ask if you can delay telling them..."

"You know I can't do that no matter how much I want to." Bill finished for her, already seeing where she was going with that thought process. "It's just not possible. Eric is the Sheriff of Area 5, he needs to be told about this upon his return home. Even if its so soon after the crazy year we have all had."

"Trust me I understand that. I just wish we didn't have to put this on them after they've already been through so much."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in London<span>_

"This is it. There's no turning back now." I thought to myself, making sure to keep those words inside my head because Eric would pick up on the slightest whisper and I didn't want him to hear anything that could make him think I was doubting tonight. Because I wasn't. If I was, I wouldn't have gone through with putting on my short white dress with the tulle skirting hitting right below my knees nor would I have pinned the veil to to my softly curled hair. And I most certainly would not have put the wedding ring I would be giving to Eric on a chain around my neck. I had done all of that and as I stood in front of the mirror one last time to ensure I looked ok, I listened for any sound coming out from the main room of the apartment but there was nothing. Not because I thought Eric had left, but because I had made him promise not to misbehave in front of the minister that had promised to marry us. He said he would do what I asked and I took the silence as a good sign. I flicked a stray curled strand off my shoulder and went towards the door.

As I placed my hand on the handle to open the door, I waited for the moment that all brides felt when they were about to get married. The moment where their heart pounded nervously and they were nearly paralyzed with fear. But there was nothing like that. I felt as calm and composed as I would have on any other night. I think it was because I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was the man I was destined to be with for the rest of my life. I wasn't going to be one of those women who had 3 or 4 husbands. I just wanted one and I wanted it to last. And as I stepped out of the bedroom and turned the corner into the living room, that's when I felt my heart rate pick up and it wasn't due to nerves.

It was because I had just caught my first glimpse of Eric that night and the image stole nearly every breath from my lungs.

If Eric had been human, I was sure he would have had the same reaction as I was having right now as I moved towards him. But even then I wasn't sure his reaction would have been as great as mine was. I had seen Eric dressed up before many times, most notably at Sookie's wedding. But it was seeing him in his all black tux on our own wedding night that seemed to rival all other nights that came before it. I had never seen a more handsome man, and Eric was the epitome of handsome on any normal night. But tonight was the highest level he could ever achieve because it wasn't just his good looks that made him so attractive, it was the way he was looking at me with a mixture of lust, love and admiration that made him all the more appealing in my eyes as I stepped up to his side and felt his hand slide around to my lower back side.

"You look incredible." His words whispered quietly into my ear, his cool breath tickling my skin as he leaned in close to me. "You are the hottest bride in the world and if I had you alone right now..."

"Eric, save the sweet talk for later." I urged him, trying not to feel aroused at his words as I pushed him to stand up straight, but I couldn't help it. Eric's blatant confession for his attraction to me had always been a turn on. No man had ever been so clear about how they felt for me other then Eric and I could not help how I felt as a result of that. But there was a minister standing not even a few feet away and talking the way he was, was not exactly the ideal situation. "We have to make this official first."

"Right..official." Eric rolled his eyes in such a way that only I was able to pick up on it before he set his face to neutral in an attempt to behave in the way I had asked him too. He turned to face the minister and even though the old man flinched in visible fear, Eric kept his composure. "I guess we should move this along then."

"Uh...um...ok." The man stumbled over his words, eying Eric through heavily lidded eyes that clearly stated he did not relish the idea of standing this close to a vampire as old as Eric nor did he feel right about marrying someone like me off to him. I read that thought as it passed through his mind briefly before his narrowed his mind to the task at hand. "I understand you wanted a simple, short ceremony. Is that still the idea?"

"Yes it is." I answered before Eric could, knowing it was for the best because as much as Eric promised to behave himself, he would jump at any opportunity to say something and I didn't wan to delay this any longer. "Go ahead."

"We are gathered here on this night to join this woman and this...Man." The minister paused briefly to raise his eyebrows at Eric before going on. "..In holy matrimony. Marriage is a sacred thing that should not be entered into lightly, no matter who or what you are..."

"Ok, we get it." Eric almost growled and if I hadn't had a hold on him then I was sure he would have lunged forward. "Move it along."

"Take Allison's hand..." The minister urged, motioning for Eric and I to separate so our hands could hang in the space between us and once our hands were joined, he went on. "Now...Do you swear to take this woman to be your wife? To have and to hold...For better or for worse... sickness and in health...for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." Eric stated confidently, not even reacting to the minister's voice wobbling over the death part of the vows. The only movement he made was to reach into his pocket and pull out a small square of paper that he handed to me before explaining. "I know we were suppose to say these vows out loud, but you know I don't like talking like this. So don't make me say it. Just read it."

I took the paper without question, smiling at the very Eric spin he put on a traditional wedding ceremony but I wouldn't have expected anything less. But as I unfolded the small paper and my eyes landed on his words, I was blown away by his sweetness.

_To my soon to be wife,_

_I was watching you sleep last night thinking there had never been a time in my life, as human or as vampire, that I had ever been happier then I was in this moment. I wrote these words down as a reminder of what I would say to you as we stood together waiting to marry, but then I realized I didn't need a reminder of what I was feeling last night. That feeling has been present inside of me ever since that first night our eyes met and it has been with me ever since. _

_We have been through much turmoil and torment, sadness and anger, betrayal and heartache and still have remained intertwined as one. I want it to forever be that way. I want to always have you at my side, for as long as the universe permits and I want you there as my wife. A sign of the utmost commitment I have for us. I have never felt such love and respect for anyone besides my maker and progeny. But you have shown me it is possibly for even vampires like me to love beyond the border of their own capabilities. And I wouldn't trade that for anything._

_Thank you for changing me into the man I am today. I love you._

_Love your (forever to be an asshole) future husband._

"Wow, Eric. That was quite an ending." I said with a giggle as I folded the paper back up and hid it in my free hand as I looked up at him. If it wasn't for that closer then I would have surely started to cry. But thanks to Eric being Eric, I was spared that as I turned to look at the minister. "Ok, I'm ready."

"Allison, do you take Eric to be your husband? To have and to hold..for better or for worse...in sickness and in health...as long as you both shall live?" He asked, his voice once again slipping over the death part but both Eric and I managed to keep it together.

"I do." I kept my eyes on Eric, silently communicating with my eyes that I was most certain about this step. I gripped his hands between mine, not having prepared a note to hand to him or even a speech, but as my Gran had told me for nearly every situation, simple was always best. So I stared up at his forever immortal face and spoke from the heart. "I love you. I've always loved you and I always will love you. Nothing will ever change that. And everything that has happened to us has only helped strengthen our bond. And now nothing will ever tear us apart. I have no doubts about our future together. You're it for me."

"That's good to know." Eric winked one eye at me, his face maintaining control.

"Yes it is." I winked back, wishing more then anything that Eric and I were alone right now. But first we had to make it completely official. "Let's finish this up now."

"You may exchange the rings now." The minister chided, waving for me to go first as I removed the chain from my neck and slid the gold band off into my palm before slipping it over Eric's extended finger. Eric then took his turn, whipping out my smaller band and had it up on my finger before I could even blink, seems like I wasn't the only one desperate to get this ceremony over with. The minister did his best to not roll his eyes but I could tell he wanted to as he said those final words. "With the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss your bride."

"It's about time." Eric practically cheered, sweeping me up in his arms before I could say a word and forcing me to wrap my arms around his neck as our faces came close together. "Did you ever think we would get to this point?"

"Of course I did." I said softly back, stifling a laugh as Eric leaned forward and joined our lips for the first time as husband and wife. And I could safely say there was no sweeter moment then the one I was experiencing right now.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So there you have it. They made it official and got married. I never actually thought it would happen after everything that they went through. But I proved myself wrong yet again and I'm glad that these two for once had a moment that didn't end in disaster. But I can't say it will last long, as obviously there is trouble brewing in Bon Temps. Which means trouble will be waiting for Allie and Eric when they get home...which brings me to the semi-spoiler alert. **

**Obviously I will be following the season 4 story line. I do not take credit for that amazing season of True Blood, but it won't be entirely the way it played out on the show. I'm adding and taking away a few elements to make it fit better for my story. So please stay tuned.**


	4. Blurring the edges

**Chapter 4 Blurring the edges **

"Ok, remind me again why we had to fly home on a private plane?" I asked Eric the next night as I turned to look at him sitting beside me all stretched out only to get a coy smile in return. I knew he always insisted on the best when we were traveling, but I figured we would return on a regular flight, not in a whole separate plane where we were the only passengers. "Don't you think this is a little excessive?"

"Have you not met me before? You know how I like to spend money in any way I can on whatever I want." He replied, twitching his eyebrows upward in amusement as he reached over and let his fingers dance across my thigh before he said. "And besides, you're my wife now. I have to shower you with wealth at least a few times in the beginning."

"I can never get use to that, you calling me your wife." I giggled, hiding my face in my hands as I could feel the blush spreading across my cheeks. It was so weird to have us go from just being the way we were to now being married. I never thought Eric would ever become the type and I certainly never imagined I would be the one he took that step with. But here we were, officially husband and wife and I couldn't be happier. I lifted my face up to look at him with a grin. "I still can't believe we actually went ahead and did it. I never do things like that..."

"Oh please it was good for you. You need to be spontaneous once in a while." Eric waved off my statement as unimportant, reaching over to pull my legs up across his lap. "And we would have ended up married whether we waited until we got back anyway."

"That's true." I nodded, that much I was sure of. Ever since I accepted Eric's proposal, it had been in the back of my mind that we wouldn't be engaged long before we married. So in a sense this was just fulfilling the inevitable. "I just know that Sookie isn't going to be entirely happy when she finds out."

"She'll get over it. There will be something else that will require her attention and our news will be in the past." Eric pointed out, only saying the half truth. Sookie would get over it probably soon because we very rarely had any peace in our lives. But if there was no trouble to be had, then she would hold a grudge for a while.

"You obviously don't know my cousin too well." I mumbled, my rant being interrupted by the buzzing of my cell phone on the seat next to me. I put my feet back on the carpet and grabbed the phone and answered it just as my eyes went to the screen. "Hey Sookie, I was just talking about you."

"Oh really? Well I hope only about good things." She replied, trying to sound lighthearted but I could tell from her tone that she had something on her mind. "What are you doing? It sounds kind of funny on your end."

"Um, Eric and I are actually on a plane right now. We decided it was time to come home." I glanced over at Eric who was smirking at me as he drew his hand upward, trying to catch it up under my dress but I shoved his hand way. "Why, what's up?"

"I just wanted to see how the vacation was going." She said, but once again I knew her fake tone was hiding something much bigger then her desire to know how I was doing. And I guess she knew I wasn't buying it because she spoke again soon after. "Alright, I was actually calling to see when you guys were coming home but you beat me to it."

"Why did you need to know? Is something wrong?" I frowned, feeling my good mood diminishing a little bit as reality set in. "Something has to be wrong. Nothing ever stays sane for long in our world."

"Nothing is really wrong. I promise you that." Sookie assured me, her voice sounding just a little bit stronger then before. "Bill and I just have somethings to discuss with you and Eric and it's important that we meet up as soon as you get home."

"Um, ok." I didn't even bother to push Sookie to tell me now because I knew she wouldn't. She had never been one to tell important things over the phone and I knew it wouldn't change now. "Sookie, I will call you as soon as we get back to the house. We're still a few hours away from landing, but I will get in touch as soon as we're home."

"Alright. Talk to you later. Bye." She hung up before I could say good bye and as my phone went silent, I turned to look at Eric with another frown.

"Something is wrong back home, I just know it." I told Eric, not having to explain what Sookie had said as he could hear everything with his heightened hearing. I tossed my phone on the seat beside me and ran my hands through my hair. "And here I thought that we would have more then just a week of calmness."

"We can't expect the calm to last any longer then that in our lives. We're just cursed that way."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Shreveport<span>_

"Ok, I have a major bone to pick with you." Louie's booming voice came charging through Godric's front door only seconds before his body followed and it was only then that Godric was able to see the expression on his face. And Louie's tone certainly did not do it justice.

"Again? You seem to be doing this a lot lately." Godric commented, trying to keep things light until he at least found out why Louie was storming into his house like he was ready to start a fight. But judging by the way things have been going lately, Godric wouldn't be surprised if that did happen. He just couldn't recall what he had done to offend his friend. "What's going on?"

"Do you remember that conversation we had the other night? The one where you said the reason that Helen wasn't confiding in us was because she feared the reaction it would get?" Louie asked more for confirmation then an actual question and that only made Godric feel like his entire body was tightening up. Something was wrong, he could see it in Louie's face. Louie was staring at him like he had just had a light bulb go off in his head. "Well, it occurred to me that you sounded awfully sure of yourself when you said that. There was too much certainty in your voice when you suggested that was the reason."

"And your point would be what?" Godric asked even though he knew full well what Louie was eluding to and it wasn't a conversation he was hoping to have this soon. But he knew it would come to this at some point. "What is this suppose to mean?"

"It didn't sound like you just thought about it. It sounded like you've thought about this for weeks and that makes me wonder if you haven't been telling me the whole truth." Louie blurted out through narrowed eyes, his hands resting open down at his sides before he moved over and sat on the edge of the couch opposite of Godric before asking. "So tell me now and I promise not to be pissed off. But has Helen...has she been confiding in you?"

"Yes." Godric replied simply, not seeing any more reason to keep on lying when Louie seemed to have already zeroed in on the truth. "She's been telling me bits and pieces about her life since she was turned. All those nights she and I meet up? That's what we talk about."

"I knew it! I just knew it!" Louie exclaimed, his face flashing over temporarily with disgust and betrayal at this notion just like Godric knew he would. Despite Louie's claim that he would keep his cool, Godric knew his friend would at least display some frustration. And it was there in his face even as his voice returned to normal. "I had a feeling something was up with you two but that feeling wasn't as strong as it was lately. But now I know I wasn't imagining it."

"Louie, you almost sound jealous that she has been talking to me." Godric couldn't suppress the grin that took over just then. It was mostly comical because the feelings between Helen and him were purely friendly despite that they were once lovers all those years ago. But it was also sad because he could see how much Louie and Helen loved each other but they were both too stubborn to do anything about it. "You do realize that there is nothing to be jealous about."

"I'm not jealous, I'm annoyed." Louie growled, sounding so unlike himself that Godric actually sat back in surprise. Louie was usually very composed and to see him kind of lose it was not typical. Louie gripped his short blonde hair with both fists before saying. "Why would she talk to you and not me?"

"Like I said, I think she is afraid of what your reaction would be if you knew this stuff about her." Godric explained, shaking his head at being in the center of this ridiculous problem. These two were very old vampires and yet they acted like newborns. It was almost embarrassing. "It's different with me because she knew I had a dark past and she could relate to that and it made her more comfortable to tell me about her own dark history. But with you...it's not so easy."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Louie snapped defensively, frowning as he was trying to decide if it were worth getting offended over.

"It means that she can't relate to you because out of the three of us, you have the most clean cut past. And you come off as this good, decent vampire. And she probably feels like she doesn't measure up to you." Godric tried to tell him, relaying what Helen had explained to him. "I think she is afraid of you judging her because of what she once did."

"What did she do that was so bad that I would judge her on?" Louie cocked his head to the side, looking confused that anyone would think he was the judging type. And he really wasn't, at least not intentionally. "Anyway, I highly doubt its that bad. She's still the same..."

"No, she's not. She is not the same person Louie and you should realize that." Godric interrupted, rubbing his pale face with his hand. "There is no way she could be the same person. Not after how she was turned, not after how her family ostracized her, and especially not after a thousand years have passed. That many years changes a person whether you see it right away or not."

* * *

><p><em><span>30 minutes later<span>_

"Are you serious? Or are you lying to me right now?" Helen demanded, staring at Godric through the darkness of the woods after he had finished speaking and did her best to maintain her composure. She hadn't had a moment to say anything once he had shown up and she didn't mind that once she heard what he was babbling about. And in that case she was more then willing to let him rant until he finally came to a rest and allowed her to speak. "Did you really tell him everything that I told you?"

"I had to Helen, I had no other choice. I didn't want to keep on lying to him." Godric explained, his young face drawn tight and tense and it was only now that she saw the effects her asking him to remain mum were having on him. She had been selfish by asking him to not tell Louie what he knew. Louie was his best friend and Godric was trying just as hard to repair his friendship with Louie as he was with her and it wasn't fair of her to ask him to leave out one component that could change everything. As he looked at her, she felt the old rush of shame pass through her. "He knew that I knew something he didn't know and he wasn't going to budge until I confirmed it. And he deserved to know, it was just a miracle I have been able to stay silent as long as I have."

"It wasn't fair to make you go through the trouble of keeping my secrets, especially not when you were trying to make things right with him as well. My request of you could have ruined your chances with him. I'm sorry." Helen shook her head, wondering when the hell she was going to learn to let go of her own selfish needs and start thinking about others. "I just can't believe he finally knows now."

"It's probably for the best though." Godric commented, reaching out to pat her shoulder with a non judging smile. "After all, you can't have a real relationship with him unless you're honest about everything you have done. If he can't love the worse parts of you, then he doesn't deserve to have the good parts of you."

"You're still as sweet as you have ever been. Your words have always managed to comfort me." Helen replied with a serene smile, feeling a rush of gratitude for her old friend. "You would never judge me for what I have done..."

"And neither would he." Godric cut in, speaking on behalf of Louie. "Yes he may need time to get use to the fact that you're no longer the innocent girl we both loved. But Louie is not stupid, he wouldn't risk losing you again by pushing you away for what you once did. And even what you still do occasionally is not as bad as you make it out to be. He will let this go. He hasn't changed all that much since you last saw him all those years ago."

"I'm just scared he won't look at me the same way again and I can't take that rejection. I would rather put on this perfect facade that kills me rather then admit to what I did and watch him walk away from me." Helen explained, bowing her head as she spoke so she wouldn't have to look at him. Pretending to be perfect in front of Louie had been taking a toll on her, as she hadn't been able to rest during the days and blood was starting to leak out of her nose and ears in retaliation. And now, even after knowing Louie now knew everything, she still couldn't imagine acknowledging it to his face. She look up to find Godric watching her and she shrugged before admitting. "I think I may still love him."

"You think or you know?" Godric asked with a knowing smile as they stood apart from each other.

"I know..." Helen retorted, feeling a smile take over as she let herself feel that acknowledgment for the first time. But of course her old stand by kicked back in. "But I don't think I deserve his love in return."

"You're never going to know unless you start being honest with him. And stop making me do the work for you." Godric stated with a wry grin, showing that despite the hell she put him through, he was still willing to stand by her and walk her through the mess she had created. "If you want him, then you have to talk to him."

"Yea, it's about time you started doing that." A cool voice spoke out from the darkness behind her and both Godric and her turned at the sudden arrival of a figure stepping out from behind a line of densely situated trees. Even before they saw his face, they both knew who it was. Louie came over to where they were standing, sending Helen a blank stare before setting his eyes on Godric. "I say this as nicely as I can, but get out of here. She and I need to talk."

"Just be nice." Godric replied, his tone taking on a protectiveness that Helen couldn't help but feel grateful for. He sent her a look that said everything was going to be ok before he shot off in to the darkness and left her alone with Louie who was watching her as silently as he ever had.

This could end really well or very very badly.

* * *

><p><em><span>Flashback<span>_

_"You're being awfully quiet for someone who just married the hottest piece of vampire ass in the country." Eric said smartly to me, turning his head on the black silk pillow to face me while his fingers trailed slowly up my bare back and caused me to shiver. "Are you already regretting it?"_

_"Not in the slightest." I replied with a grin, moving closer so I could close the distance between us and reached out to touch my hand to his face. "I'm just reliving every little detail of tonight."_

_"Was it the way you imagined it would feel after marrying me?" He asked, his smirk quite evident as we stared at each other here at the end of the night after making this entire journey over the past almost 2 years official. "Or was it as good as you wanted it to be?"_

_"It was better then that. It was actually kind of perfect." I answered, complete certainty in my voice as my thoughts returned back to the events of the last few hours. Yes the ceremony had been unconventional and short but it was what was right for us. And I found the most satisfying moment to come after we were alone when Eric had whisked me off to the bedroom to make love to me for the first time as husband and wife. If there was any such thing as a perfect night, then this was it and I wouldn't have changed any part of it. "It was just the way I imagined it would go when I decided to marry you."_

_"I guess I will take that as a good thing." He nodded, his fingers tugging on my long loose hair. "I will admit, I was always hoping that you would agree to getting married like this. Big ceremonies were just never my thing."_

_"Getting married was never your thing until you met me." I pointed out with my own smirk, sitting up and tucking the sheets under my arms before looking down at him. "I guess you could say I changed you."_

_"Only in the most important of ways. But I'm mostly still the same jackass I have always been." He said with wiggling eyebrows, laying there with his hands behind his blonde head. "I don't think you would have me any other way."_

_"Of course not, other wise you wouldn't be the man I fell in love with." I grinned, knowing the full truth behind my words. I never wanted to change Eric from who he use to be before me. I would love him the way he came, with all the mean, hot tempered, sarcastic moments that he came with. After all, when you loved someone truly, then you loved even the bad things about them and accepted them with no questions asked. And I liked to think I did that here. "I want you just the way you are. Nothing more, nothing less. You're perfect in my eyes."_

_"If I was human, this would be the moment I would start blushing." Eric rolled his eyes, making it very clear that even when he was alive, he probably had never blushed in the presence of a woman. "Trust me when I say I am far from perfect. If anyone is perfect in this world then it's you and Godric."_

_"Oh come on. Godric is not perfect no matter how much you love him. And as naïve and as innocent as I was in the beginning, I wasn't even perfect then. I don't think anyone truly is. But I love you so much that I think you are." I explained, reaching over to run my fingers through his messy hair with a sigh. I was just so relaxed and happy right now that I couldn't imagine it could be any better. "And I kind of like you not being perfect. You're more interesting this way."_

_"Oh you know it." he agreed, sitting up next to me against the headboard and cocked his head to the side. "And things will only be more interesting now that we're married."_

_"I hope you mean in a good way." I eyed him intently, remembering that we don't often get a long stretch of time before some other trouble came knocking at our door. "But you're right, I think being married is going to be a fun adventure for us both. And even though our wedding was different and short, I will never forget it. Not for as long as I live."_

_"And you will live a very long time. I'm going to make sure of it." Eric replied quietly, his face going dark as I knew he was thinking about the months when I had been dead. It made me shudder still to remember that and I was glad when he suddenly changed the subject and tapped the side of his head. "And I won't forget our wedding either. It's in my memories forever."_

_"It better be..." I insisted before leaning over to kiss him..._

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in the woods<span>_

"Are you going to talk to me at all?" Helen asked quietly, her face still hung low like it had been for the last 40 minutes since they had been left alone and she had been forced to confirm everything he had confronted her about and still she couldn't look at him. It was only now that she had even gotten the courage to speak to him after she had finished talking. "Or are you just going to judge me out loud like I know you are doing in your head."

Louie couldn't even find it in himself to answer her, his head too clouded over with the information he had been loaded with by Godric and then confirmed by her. He didn't want to believe any of it. He didn't want to think that his beautiful, goodhearted former lover could be capable of such horrible things. But when Godric looked him in the eye and told him, he knew he had no choice but to believe it. And when he had confronted Helen about each point, her nod and back up of it just solidified his clarification. And now he didn't know what he was thinking. Despite knowing that she had just agreed to everything he had been told, it was still difficult for him to grasp that she had done such things. She had never been violent or negative or anything in the time they had been together. In his eyes she had been perfect. But hearing about the human she lured into her bed and the way she tortured them before killing them nearly made him revolt in disgust. And the fact that she still repeated this process to this day was enough to make him cringe. He didn't know what to make of it and he almost wished he hadn't been told about any of it. It was probably the very reason why he hadn't said anything for the better part of the last 40 minutes.

"I just..." Louie began, his voice finally speaking was what drew Helen's head up to look at him for the first time since they met up. He saw the tense expression in her eyes but he couldn't bring himself to pity her. Not when a new frustration was filling him up. "I just need to know."

"Know what?" She asked quietly, her arms crossing over her tiny body as she remained apart of from him. "I told you everything. And trust me when I say there is nothing else."

"I can't trust you, not after finding out you have been confiding to Godric this whole and leading me to believe he was in the dark too." Louie found himself spitting out almost hatefully. He didn't hate her but he was furious, more furious then he had ever been at being left behind again by her. He should have been the one she came to to talk about this stuff. But instead, she choose Godric to take along for the ride and he was left in the dust. He did not appreciate that one bit. "Why did you talk to him, huh? Why did you feel more at ease telling him all your big dark secrets and not me?"

"Because Godric and I share a mutual background. He has a dark side just like I do and his sins and mistakes are on par with mine. You on the other hand just don't measure up in that category." Helen replied, her brilliant green eyes seeming dull for the first time he could ever remember. "You've always been better then me in terms of being a vampire, I know this because I watched you for so many years. You never hunted humans just for sport or tortured them just because you could. Yes, before True Blood, you hunted them to survive, but you only took what you needed. You were never mean or cruel. How could I have possibly confessed what I have done to someone like you?"

"You should have remembered what I told you the night you explained everything. That I would have still loved you even when you became a vampire. And I wouldn't have judged you about what you did if you would have just told me." Louie hissed, his frustration growing as well as the jealousy that Godric had commented on earlier. He hadn't wanted to admit it, but there had to be more then just a mutual share of backgrounds that made Helen choose Godric over him. And it was a fear that was about to come bursting out of his mouth with no restraint. "Are you still in love with Godric?"

"What!" She exclaimed, her voice coming out a lot louder then it had since the start of the conversation and her arms dropped down to her side instantly. "Are you insane? What would make you think that?"

"Because there has to be a reason why you would want to talk to him. And I doubt its just because he has a colored past like you." He accused, feeling his whole body shake with the certainty that he was right about this. And it drove him crazy to think he was going to lose her to his former best friend. Louie had been willing to try and make things right with Helen so they could return to their former relationship. But finding out she was confiding in Godric had changed all that. He narrowed his eyes at her and said. "You want him again, don't you?"

"No I don't. That's not why I talk to him about my past." Se shot back, her eyes flashing with her desperation and making her look almost human again. "Godric's my friend just like he was at the end of my human life. I chose you back then and I would chose you now if I could."

"I don't believe you." He admitted, making sure to keep his face as blank as he could even though he was boiling on the inside. "If that's not the reason then tell me why you picked him. I just want to understand..."

"Because I didn't want you to know this side of me existed. I didn't want you to see me as this dark and violent person, I wanted you to remember me as the girl that I once was and the one you use to love." She shouted at him, her voice echoing through the silent trees before her face started running with blood, mostly from her eyes. It unnerved him to see her like this and it made something break inside of him. She tried to wipe them away but they only smudged her pale skin and eventually she just gave up and looked at him straight on. "I was afraid that if you knew this side of me, then it would keep you from ever loving me again. And it looks my fears have been justified."

Louie went quiet for a moment, not knowing what to do but just stand there and look at her falling apart in front of his eyes. He wanted to run, he wanted to yell, he wanted to push her away and not acknowledge this moment. But he couldn't do any of that. Instead, that break inside of him pushed him to do something he had probably been wanting to do since he first saw her again in Eric's backyard. Before he could even think to stop himself, he found his body propelling forward and his hands reaching out for her. And then he shocked them both by unexpectedly taking her face in his hands and pressing their cold lips together for the first time as immortals. She seemed so shocked that she could only stand there and kiss him back, unleashing every old feeling and desire that use to flow between them and he felt it just as strongly now as he did back then. Nothing had changed at all. He knew he still loved her.

"Why did you do that?" She whispered after she had forced herself away from him and stood back with her fingers at her lips. "Why would you kiss me?"

Louie couldn't answer again, he was paralyzed in those woods by the electric current that was flowing through him from their brief kiss, a kiss that felt as alive as the ones they use to share a thousand years ago. Helen wasn't saying anything back either but he could tell by the look in her eyes that she was feeling the same desire as he was. He knew they should have stopped from doing what they did next but neither could reign themselves in. The desire was too much as they both reached for each other at the same time before they started ripping the clothes from their bodies.

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Shreveport<span>_

"Oh my god, I cannot believe we are actually home." I called out to Eric later that night, watching with a giggle as he flashed ahead of me carrying all our luggage inside and tossing it on the floor before rejoining me back out in the chilly night air. I couldn't help but grin up at him, feeling the same happiness right now that I had felt in London and on the plane home. It was nothing but love in this moment as we stood together in front of our home for the first time as a married couple. "And we're married now. That's the best part."

"You'll never get tired of saying that will you?" Eric smirked, pushing a stray strand of hair behind my ear before he suddenly scooped me up in his arms and held me tightly against his broad chest. "And now Mrs. Northman, I must officially carry you over the threshold."

"Mrs Northman, I will certainly never get tired of hearing you say that." I giggled, feeling the air sting my cheeks as he flashed forward and entered the house soon after speaking, kicking the door shut with his heel before setting me down on the tiled floor. "But speaking of hearing, we need to make one thing clear. We wait at least until tomorrow night to tell Sookie and Bill that we got married. For now, I just want us to know so we can have our moment last just a little bit longer."

"Anything my wife wants, my wife gets." Eric murmured in my ear, his words making me shiver in excitement. Who knew that being his wife and hearing him call me that could get me so aroused? Eric seemed to know the effect he was having on me. "Is my wife getting a little excited?"

"Try a lot excited." I grinned, reaching up to wrap my hands around the back of his neck and just stood there looking at him. I didn't want to walk away from this moment or have it changed in any way. It was perfect to just stand here with my husband and know it was now us against the world. He would forever be at my side now and I loved knowing that. I went to pull him back down to me but for some reason, he resisted and stood back up straight just as my arms fell to my side. "Eric? What's wrong?"

"My in laws are here." He grumbled and then reached for the door handle and yanked it open. I went around to the now open doorway and looked at the driveway in shock to see Bill's car coming to a stop at the top of the driveway while Eric groaned in annoyance. "I heard them approaching just now."

"Well we can't just stand here and refuse to speak to them." I said quietly before walking passed him and out into the yard again just as Sookie was the first to emerge from the dark car. "Sookie!"

"Allison!" She exclaimed in the same silly tone I had used, causing us both to laugh and move forward at the same time so we could embrace each other tightly. I could practically feel her smile as she wrapped her arms around me and said. "Did you guys just get home? You were suppose to call when you landed."

"I know but we were just so happy to be home that we didn't remember that promise." I explained, pulling away and holding her at arm's length, watching out of the corner of my eye as Eric came out into the yard just as Bill strolled forward with his hands in his pockets. "Hey Bill."

"Welcome home Allison." Bill nodded his head and sent me a smile, completely ignoring Eric in the process but I wasn't surprised. He and Eric would never get along and I shouldn't have expected our return to offer anything different. But Bill and Eric were now in laws so they had to learn to tolerate...

"Wait a second! Why did you just say in your mind that Eric and Bill were in laws?" Sookie suddenly demanded, her tone immediately grabbing my attention back as I was already cursing myself for not shielding my thoughts properly. Her hands dropped from my arms and she stood there with her mouth practically hanging open. "Allison...did you and Eric..."

"Yes, we got married while we were in London. Just last night actually." I murmured, scrunching up my face as this was not the way I had wanted to break the news to her. I had wanted to set her aside and actually explain it calmly and not have her hear it from a stray thought in my head. But her and Bill's sudden arrival had thrown those plans out the window and now I was scared of her reaction. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you, but we just wanted to do it, so we did. Are you mad?"

"Of course I'm mad. We're like sisters Allison. I should have been there when you got married. All it would have taken was one phone call and I would have gotten on a plane." She replied, her face falling slightly and it only made me feel worse for my momentary spontaneity. This was exactly why I never did anything without thinking it all the way through, someone's feelings always got hurt. And this time it was Sookie's. But in her typical fashion, the next time she was looking at me, her tone had done a complete 180. "Even though you went ahead and did this with out me, I am actually happy for you. I know this was a long time coming, so I will attempt to put aside my own feelings and just say congratulations."

"Well thank you. We both appreciate it." Eric said, speaking for the both of us as he appeared behind me and wrapped his arm around my waist. "Look on the bright side of all this. We're family now, you can't ever get rid of me."

"Well, it's also not too late for her to divorce you." Bill added in smugly, staring up at Eric with obvious disgust. Obviously my extended family's dynamic wouldn't change. "After all, you're not exactly the most reliable..."

"Bill! Don't start." Sookie cut in, seeing where this was heading and chose to jump in right before it got too heated. She grabbed Bill's arm, knowing he wouldn't do anything if they were touching. "Why don't we tell them the news?"

"What news?" I asked with a frown, remembering now that they had something to also tell us.

"Bill is now King of Louisiana." Sookie announced before he could even open his mouth and it was probably a good thing she had been the one to say it before I could already see and feel Eric tensing up as this new development set in on the both of us. Bill was King? How in the hell did that happen? Sookie's eyes were on both of us as she spoke again. "After you guys left for London, Nan Flanagan came to visit us. Apparently the Queen was assassinated and Nan wanted Bill to take up her position. And he really couldn't say no, so he took it."

"Um, congrats Bill." I said through my shock, not expecting one of my family members to now be the ruler of the state we lived in. "You being King is going to be a good thing."

"He seems more like a Queen then a King in my opinion." Eric replied smartly, making no attempt to hide his annoyance over the fact that Bill was now ranked above him, it had always been the other way around. And when Eric didn't like something, he could be a real smart ass. "Should I bow down to you Queen Bill?"

"Laugh all you want Northman, but just remember one thing." Bill chided, crossing his arms in triumphant before saying. "I am you superior now and you have to answer to me. Or else there will be severe consequences."

"OK, before this turns into a power struggle, we should probably tell you the rest of the reason Bill is now King. And trust me when I say we all need to be untied for this." Sookie waved her hands through the air as if to dissolve the tension that was building between the vampires. "Nan came to us a few nights ago and said there is a group of Necromancers here in Shreveport that may prove to be a problem."

"Oh great. More witches, that's just perfect." I grumbled response, already wanting to punch something. We just got done with a bunch of witches and now we had to deal with Necromancers, the worse kind of witch. I shook my head. "Let me guess, Nan wanted you to take care of this."

"She seems to think this is going to be an issue and wants it dealt with as soon as possible. I told her I would wait until Eric returned before I gathered the other Sheriffs to decide how to best approach this." Bill explained, showing he could care less about Eric but was putting that aside for my benefit which I appreciated. "So we're going to have to investigate it and we better just hope that it turns out to be nothing."

"Don't be naïve my liege..." Eric said sarcastically, rolling his eyes deeply. "Necromancers never turn out to be just nothing."

* * *

><p><em><span>At Fangtasia<span>_

"...look at that vampire at the bar, he's kind of hot.."

"Kind of ? He is definitely hot. You need to have your eyes checked."

"I've seen him around here a lot lately, he must be new in town."

"I wonder if he would bite me if I asked him to.."

Gabriel smiled to himself as the voices of the humans complimenting him reached his ears as he sat there at the bar with his back turned to the rest of the room as he took a sip of the bottled blood Pam had set in front of him. It was quite disgusting and he would have preferred real human blood but he was in Fangtasia and they didn't allow the vampires to feed on humans while on the premises, even when the human were willing. And he didn't feel like moving for the moment so he sat there and drank the synthetic blood as well as he could without making a face and listened to the humans who would causally observe him when they didn't think he could hear them.

"You look like you're having a grand old time." A familiar voice said from his right and he turned his head just in time to see his maker sliding on to the bar stool next to him with her hands in her lap and her eyes looking at him with a cloud of haze in them. "Surprised to see you drinking the fake blood. I thought you hated it."

"I do, but I'm not allowed to drink from one of these fang bangers so I have to settle for this." He explained, fingering his half empty glass before turning to look at her again. There was something off about his maker tonight. Something was different about her, she was distracted about something he knew nothing about. "Why do you look like you just did something crazy?"

"Because I did do something crazy.." She agreed, nodding as she kept her eyes trailed straight ahead before saying. "I slept with Louie tonight. In the woods, fucking like animals."

"Uh, ok. How nice for you.." Gabriel replied, laughing a bit at this development that had been a thousand years in the making. He knew that once Helen had revealed herself to Louie that it would be only a matter of time before they were back together. After all, you couldn't just ignore a loved like theirs. He watched her face for a second, wondering why she wasn't looking happier about this. "Why aren't you smiling? And why did you leave him if you guys reconnected like that?"

"Because I don't think it will change anything." She said quietly, her face momentarily contorting before she reached out without looking at him and distractedly pat his shoulder, lost in her own thoughts. "I think I'm going to go back to the house. You stay here and have fun. I'll see you later."

"Bye." Gabriel called over his shoulder, watching his maker maker her way through the crowd of humans before disappearing out the door and into the parking lot where she could take off at breakneck speed. He turned around with a laugh, shaking his head. As much respect as he had for his maker, he couldn't help but think she was acting no better then a vampire half her age. She knew what she wanted and she could have gone after it, but she choose instead to just get caught up in all these emotions she still had for Louie. And now with them sleeping together should have been the deciding factor, she just ran off and refused to acknowledge it. Gabriel couldn't fathom how she could take this after all these years.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" A male voice said, interrupting his thoughts and he turned to find a tall vampire taking the seat where Helen had just been. This vamp was unfamiliar, Gabriel had never seen him before and he would have known if he had. This guy was quite memorable looking as far as vampires went. He was tall with sandy blonde hair and brown eyes and had an air about him that spoke to his age and Gabriel could sense he was a lot older then himself. The vamp set his hands on top of the bar and said. "You're girlfriend is quite lovely."

"Helen? She's not my girlfriend, she's my maker." Gabriel corrected him, shaking his head at the thought of anyone thinking him and Helen could ever be anything more then maker and child. It was just too weird. "Why? Do you know her?"

"I just arrived here in town and my eyes caught her as she was leaving." The stranger said, nodding to Pam to bring him a bottle of blood before he went on. "So she's your maker huh? Very nice."

"She is actually, as far as makers go." Gabriel agreed, knowing he was lucky that he had a maker who treated him more as a friend then a slave like most makers did these days. Helen never really ordered him about unless it was something that would endanger either of them. And this stranger seemed quite zeroed in on that. Gabriel watched as the guy picked up the bottle Pam slide over to him and take a sip and then asked the obvious. "Who are you?"

"My name is Alec..."

**A/N: Ooo there you have it so much has happened and Helen's little brother makes his first appearance in this fic. And trust me when i say the craziness has only just begun. if you have watched the 4th season then you know what is coming up soon. So stayed tuned**


	5. What are you willing to lose

**Chapter 5 What are you willing to lose**

_The next night_

"Well look at what we have here. The happy couple in question." Nan Flanagan's voice cut through the night air like a knife being thrown and interrupted the nice moment Eric and I were having as we sat out on our front porch trying to enjoy the quiet. But of course it wasn't meant to last judging by the sudden and unexpected arrival of the blonde vampire who somehow managed to always have a hand in affairs like this. Eric and I broke apart just as she walked up the steps and paused in front of us with her hands on her hips. "So the rumors are true then? You really have gone and settled down and all that sappy shit?"

"Yes, I got married the other night if that's what you're saying." Eric confirmed, already standing up to his full height to show he wasn't going to take whatever she came here to say. He would obviously listen just to avoid trouble but he would never allow Nan to boss him around if he could help it. I decided it was probably for the best to just stay quiet for the time being and let Eric handle this. "Allison is my wife now."

"Hmm, isn't that just sweet." Nan flashed her eyes on me, looking me up and down in a way that said she wanted to sneer at me but she managed to reign it in for some reason before addressing Eric. "Well now that you have returned, you need to work with Bill more closely. I assume he has filled you in on the necromancy problem?"

"He has told me about the possible problem.." Eric replied, putting emphasis on the word possible as he crossed his arms tightly over his chest. "And we do plan on keeping tabs on these witches, but for now that's it."

"And since when did Eric Northman ever turn down a chance to get things messy?" Nan asked testily, her leather jacket covered arms also crossing around herself. I saw her eyes shoot towards me again accusingly. "I hope you don't think you can shirk your duties just because you took a wife. Because that would not be the smart thing to do."

"Um excuse me, I don't plan on being a distraction to him." I frowned, no longer able to stay out of the conversation once Nan suggested that I would keep Eric from doing his duties just because we were married. I was offended by that and even though she was an old vampire, I wasn't just going to sit back and take it. "We've been together for a long time now and he hasn't lost his focus."

"Hmm, I happen to disagree with you on that. Do you not remember the period of time when he refused to even leave his house because he was in a hole of depression?" Nan asked, reminding us both of what had occurred just a few months ago before I had been resurrected. Of course I had been told about how Eric had taken it but to hear Nan throw it back in his face was just a different story. Still she waved off any further comment from me and said. "Anyways, I came to make sure you know where your attention needs to be. Make sure nothing comes of this necromancer situation or I will have your ass."

She gave me one last disgusted look before she disappeared off the porch and left a trail of dust in her wake as Eric and I just stood there and looked at each other. And just like that, our perfect little bubble that we had been in since we got married had been popped.

"I really hate her." Eric said to break the silence, the frustration in his voice more then evident as he faced me. "She must get some sort of pleasure of doing shit like this."

"Oh I'm sure she does." I didn't disagree as my mind already began to swirl in another direction, a direction I didn't think we would have to face again so soon. I looked up at him with a heavy shrug and said. "So...looks like we have another witch problem on our..."

"I don't have to do this you know. We've had plenty of trouble with witches and we don't need more. So I don't have to do this." Eric reached down to take my face in his hands so I was looking at him straight on. "I don't have to get involved. I'm sure if I talk to Bill, he can spin it somehow so..."

"No, you need to do this. We both know that there will be more trouble if you refuse to get involved. We all know how Nan can be." I grumbled, not warming up to that woman any more then I had in the past but kept my face neutral. "But we need to do something first."

"What's that?" He questioned, running his thumbs across my cheeks.

"We need to go talk to Bill..."

* * *

><p><em><span>In Bon Temps<span>_

"Hello? Sookie, are you home?"

Sookie turned away from the mirror she was standing at as she was getting ready for work and looked across the room at Bill who had also been torn away from his task at the sound of Allie's voice coming through the front door. They hadn't been expecting her and she hadn't even called but that didn't mean anything to them. She didn't need an invitation to come over and if she was showing up at this hour without calling first then it must mean something was wrong. Especially by the way her voice sounded. Sookie wasted no time in abandoning the mirror and nodded to Bill who followed her out of the room and out onto the second floor landing where they looked over the banister and found Allie standing there with Eric at her side and the two of them looking tense and guarded. And upon their eyes meeting, Allie was the first to speak.

"We just got a visit from Nan Flanagan tonight." Allie blurted out, her simple sentence explaining everything in full as Sookie and Bill made their way down the stairs towards them. Once they were all on the same level, she spoke again. "Yea, that's right. You heard correctly."

"That is never a good thing." Bill sighed, his hands going to his face as he already looked tired of this subject and it had barely begun. "What does she want now?"

"Oh she just stopped by to make fun of the fact that Allie and I are married." Eric spoke, his eyes rolling to back up his tone that he was as unhappy with Nan's presence as Bill was. "And to also make sure that we do what we're suppose to do about the necromancers. Like we haven't already talked about it."

"For Christ sakes, she never stops does she?" Bill exclaimed in frustration, throwing his arms up so fast that they became a blur before he brought them back down just as fast and placed his hands on his hips. "Ok I'm sick of her coming by every night and bothering us. She wants us to investigate this group? Then fine, we'll do it tonight and put this ridiculous notion to rest. Anything to just shut her up already."

"I'll go and do it." Eric volunteered, looking like he too was willing to do whatever it took to get this over and done with so their lives would quite being interrupted. "After all, she made it very clear that she wants my involvement in this. So I will be the one to go check it out."

"And I'll go with you." Allie declared, grabbing his arm as she spoke but his face was already directed towards her with a frown. "What? Did you honestly think you could say you were going to face more witches and I wasn't going to say anything?"

"You know very well you can't go. You haven't had the best luck with witches in the past." Eric had the nerve to remind her and them all as if they could forget what had happened in the graveyard months ago. But his eyes were focused solely on Allie's face when his face turned from serious to playful. "And you better agree to stay out of it before I'm forced to drug you again."

"Like hell you are. I will silver your ass if you ever do that again." Her cousin shot back like the spit fire she had become but she hadn't truly mastered it yet as she soon relented. "Fine, I will humor you and stay behind again. I'll even go home and wait for you to return."

"Now that's being a good wife." Eric smirked, snaking his arm around behind her and pulling her to his side. "I like that you obey me more now then you did before we were married."

"Oh god." Sookie groaned, slapping her forehead in disgust.

"And while you're off doing that, I'm going to get in touch with the other sheriffs in case there comes a reason to take a more physical approach." Bill added in, scratching the back of his head with his pale fingers before setting his serious eyes on Eric. "Now you are only going to speak to them Eric, nothing more. You will not actually physically push them around. Are we clear?"

"Yes my liege..." Eric said sarcastically before leaning down in an even more sarcastic bow. When he stood back up, he took a moment to briefly kiss Allison on the lips, the rarest second of showing his true self before he headed towards the door. "Hold those lips, I will meet you back home."

"I wouldn't worry about anything Allie, this is going to turn out to be nothing." Sookie said as soon as Eric left the house and she went to her cousin's side in case the younger girl needed reassurance. "Holly is a apart of that group and it was only a few months ago when she fought with us against the Dallas coven. If she is with them, then it has to be ok. She wouldn't side with them if they were evil."

"I think you're right. I may have only know Holly for a little while but she's not stupid and I don't think she would get involved with anything truly bad. So I'm not worried." Allie replied with a small smile and for what Sookie gathered from her mind, she was being honest. Of course she would be a little nervous considering it was Eric going alone to face witches and their history hadn't been good. But it was going to be alright. Allie proved that when she turned and embraced Sookie shortly before also edging for the door. "I think I'm going to head home now. At least with Eric being busy I can get in a quick nap before he gets home and wants to play."

"Eww. Allie that is so gross." Sookie made a face as she watched her cousin wave to her and Bill before disappearing outside.

* * *

><p><em><span>20 minutes later<span>_

"Of course, the one night I get to go home and get some rest before Eric gets back, I remember I have to go shopping." I grumbled to myself as I pushed the shopping cart along the nearly empty aisle of the supermarket while I continued to toss various things into the half full contraption in the hopes that I could get through this as quickly as possible and get home. "Serves me right for not doing the grocery shopping during the day."

I had been well on my way home to Shreveport and was just passing the store on the highway when I realized that there was no food in the house. I hadn't done any shopping before Eric and I left for England and when we returned, I hadn't really remembered to get supplies. So I was forced to stop and get out to go get a few things or be content with putting it aside for another night which I did not want to do. At least shopping would be better then sitting at home trying to sleep and being distracted by whether or not Eric was going to be ok. Despite what I had told Sookie when I left, I was still on edge at the thought of Eric facing a whole group of witches on his own. I know he wasn't going to do anything because he was on Bill's orders, but Eric was a vampire that was easily swayed by his temper. And he would forget his place and do something stupid if he was provoked. So that made me more then a little apprehensive in the time he and I had been away from each other. But I had to have faith that for once Eric would behave himself. After all, I couldn't live my life thinking that everything and everyone was out to get us,because that wouldn't be true. So I was glad when I was forced to stop tonight and enter this nearly empty store for a shopping trip. This would be a welcomed distraction and would at least have my attention for a little while...

"Excuse me Miss, but you might want to watch where you are going." A smooth sounding voice broke through my thoughts and brought me to a sudden stop before I looked up and saw that I was only seconds away from nearly running over the owner of this nice voice. He didn't seem to be bothered by the near collision and one look at his face told me why. "I mean, I'm a vampire so it wouldn't have hurt me. But if it had been a human, then you could have been looking at a lawsuit."

"You are so right and I'm really sorry. I just have a lot on my mind." I apologized to this stranger even though I didn't need to. The cart was metal, not silver so it couldn't have hurt him in the slightest, but it was old habit to apologize for almost running into someone. I looked up at him, taking his youthful attractive features and soft brown eyes and sandy blonde hair and for some reason that I couldn't explain, I wasn't threatened or scared by this vampire. He gave off a friendly vibe that I was able to pick up on now that I could read vampire minds. I smiled sheepishly up at him. "Sorry again."

"I should be apologizing to you. If you had hit me, then the force could have broken all those bottles of blood in your cart and then you would be in trouble." He motioned to where I had stacked folded up cartons of bottled blood in the main part of the cart before looking at me with raised eyebrows. "I hope I don't offended you by saying this but what is with all the blood? You are obviously not a vampire so why did you but so much of this synthetic shit?"

"Ah you are one of those vamps who can't stand the stuff." I nodded, remembering that Helen's progeny Gabriel had told me he didn't really like the stuff either and that was common for most of the vampire community. I looked up at the attractive male and said. "It's for my husband actually. He's sheriff of Area 5."

"You're married to Eric?" The male said, his face twitching slightly as if something had gone off inside his head. "So then you're Allison."

"Uh, yes." I agreed, instantly putting up a frown at the notion that some strange vamp knew who I was. And in my experience, when that happened, it never meant anything good. "How did you know who I was?"

"You're well known around Shreveport because of your connection to Eric.." He explained, holding up his hands defensively like he could tell I didn't trust him. "And you've been in the bar a few times, so everyone knows who you are. And most vampires have seen your face."

"I guess that makes sense." I nodded, feeling a little stupid for not realizing that right away. Of course the vampires of Shreveport would know me, when I walked into Fangtasia I was always at Eric's side so they knew me through him even when I didn't converse with them all that often. But still I wasn't completely convinced. "I don't remember seeing you and I would have remembered your face. What's your name?"

"Forgive me for my rudeness, I forgot myself..." He replied extending his hand to me politely like I would have done before saying. "My name is Alec."

"It's nice to meet..." I began to say, grasping his hand tightly but my voice went silent as my head connected with his and I heard a name being spoken in his thoughts as well as a face flashing through his head. But it wasn't me or even Eric. It was Helen of all people. I pulled my hand back and frowned. "How do you know Helen?"

"What?" Alec seemed more taken aback then I was and for a second I thought I saw something akin to fear in his eyes. "How did you know I was just thinking about that?"

"Well considering I am protected by Eric, I feel a little more at ease confessing this little tidbit but..." I began, knowing there was no reason to fear letting out this secret of mine when I ad Eric around to keep this local vampires in line. If it had even been just a year ago I would have stayed mum as vampires did not want their minds read and would have killed anyone they knew could do it. But now it was different and the Shreveport vampires wouldn't even think to lay a hand on me or else they would suffer the wrath of my husband. So I felt ok divulging my ability to Alec. "You see, I'm a Faerie and I can read human minds as well as shifters and weres. But over the past year, I developed the ability to also read vampire minds. That's how I could tell you were thinking about Helen, I was able to look into your head. That happens when there is skin to skin contact. It makes the connection more clear."

"Wow, that is a trip." Alec muttered, running his fingers through his short hair as he seemed to accept my explanation. "I never heard of any Faerie being able to do that. It's kind of cool. But I have to ask how you know her."

"I know her through a few friends." I said, not wanting to give too much away about other people to a stranger. It was one thing to give away details about myself, but it wasn't my place to give away info on anyone else. Even if it was just names. And it was time that I got a few answers of my own. "Now you tell me how you know her."

"Oh, I just knew her from years ago. A lot of years ago." Alec told me with a shrug that was meant to be casual but something told me it was anything but that. However his mind was closed off to me and I was given no other opportunity to question him. "I would love to stay and talk to you some more, because you seem quite lovely. But I do have to go. Maybe I will see you around more often."

"Yea, maybe you will." I replied with a smile as I took a hold of my cart again and began walking away. It was only when I reached the end of the aisle did I look back over my should and found Alec still there studying me with intense eyes and I couldn't help but think this wouldn't be the last time I see him.

* * *

><p><em><span>45 minutes later<span>_

"Helen? Are you alright?" Godric's voice asked her for what seemed like the millionth time that night as she sat across from him and Gabriel in a booth at the back of Fangtasia and attempted to at least pay attention to the conversation. But her efforts were obviously unsuccessful as Godric had to prod her with his finger to get her to look at him. "You've look distracted all evening. What's going on?"

"Nothing really. Just thinking about my talk with Louie from the other night that's all." Helen replied, trying her hardest to keep up an uncomplicated smile while silently conveying to Gabriel to not say a word. Godric had no idea that she and Louie had slept together and she wanted to keep it that way. The less people who knew about her and Louie was for the best, then she didn't have to hear their opinions on the situation. And Gabriel knew to keep his mouth shut. "I'm fine, really."

"Yea, she's been like this since last night. It's not a new development." Gabriel chimed in, back up her claim with as much certainty as he could muster. It was a good thing they were all vampires because if they weren't then Godric would have been able to tell that he was lying. Instead, only Helen could tell that. "You know how she gets around Louie."

"Oh yes, I certainly know that." Godric agreed, sending her a wry smile as he seemed to buy the story. "She has always been easily affected by Louie, even when she and I were together."

"Godric!" Helen exclaimed, forgetting her misery for a second as he mentioned their once intimate relationship and if she hadn't already been dead then she would have been turning red right now. "I can't believe you would say that in front of my progeny."

"What? He knows everything, he doesn't care." Godric waved his hand to brush away the air of tension between them that had been there since they met up. "It's not like he is a child."

"He's my child and yes he may know all about my past but I still don't wish to talk about my past intimacies with him." Helen rolled her eyes, it was one thing to confess to sleeping with Louie the other night. But she was embarrassed to be reminded of her relationship with Godric when they were such good friends now. She rubbed her hands across her face before saying. "Let's just..."

"Let's just what?" A new voice joined the fray that they all knew well and Helen had to stifle back a groan when she looked up and found Louie standing right at the end of the table only a few inches away and was staring down at her knowingly. "Hello Helen."

"Hey Louie. We were just talking about you." Helen mumbled, looking away from his face and catching Gabriel's eyes who was looking almost panicked at this new arrival. She sent him a look that said she would handle it and turned back to Louie. "Why don't you sit down and take my place? I was just about to leave."

"Actually I came here to talk to you." He stated, nodding to the other two males before setting his eyes back on her and she could practically see the thoughts scrambling across his brilliant blue green eyes. Eyes that she couldn't look away from last night as he was thrusting into her down in the dirt and...No no no. She couldn't be thinking about that. It wouldn't help matters, it could only make it worse. Louie cocked his head to the side like he knew what she was thinking and only said. "Come with me."

"No, I don't think I will." Helen shook her head, immediately shrugging off his invitation even as Godric was starting to look at her weirdly. It was uncomfortable to be sitting here, only inches away from the man she had just had sex with last night and try to act like nothing was wrong. But that was how it would have to be. She leaned in close to Louie even though the others would still be able to hear and said. "I know last night didn't change anything, so there is nothing to talk about."

"Ok, what is going on with you two?" Godric asked, frowning as he looked between them suspiciously. "Why are you acting so odd?"

"No reason, just an issue between her and me." Louie answered in a tone that said not to ask any more questions. "Helen, I insist that we talk."

"And I already told you no." She hissed through clenched teeth before nodding downward towards her lap where there was the slightest glimmer of light coming out of her fingertips that only he could see. She looked back into his eyes to make sure he knew how serious she was. "Back off or I will not hesitate to throw you across this bar and cause a scene."

"You're really pushing my buttons you know." He muttered but he ended up stepping aside and allowed her to get up out of the booth, sending her a look as she stood up in front of him before motion towards the door. "Well go on since you seem so eager to run off again."

"You can be such an ass sometimes." Helen shot back, feeling the sting from his words as he reminded her of how she had run away a thousand years ago. But she didn't let it show as she waved at Godric and Gabriel before shooting for the door.

* * *

><p><em><span>1 hour earlier<span>_

_"I can't believe we actually did it. I mean, shit! We brought a dead bird back to life. That's pretty fucking sweet..."_

_"Sweet? I say fucking awesome..I've never been able to do this kind of stuff on my own."_

_"This is why we joined the group. When we are on our own our power is limited, but together we can do real things. .."_

_"So what are we going to bring back next? Something bigger then a bird I hope?"_

_"How about a dead body?"_

"Oh this will be fun." Eric mumbled to himself as he stood outside the darkened front of the Moon Goddess Emporium building and to the outside view it would look like nothing was going on. But Eric could hear the murmur of voices going on in the way back room as well as the steady drum of many heartbeats so he knew they were there. Which was going to make this so much easier. He rolled his head on his shoulders and set his eyes straight ahead. "Let's get this party started."

He wasted no more precious seconds and simply barged right on in through the locked door, practically flying through the main part of the store before coming to a pair of double doors which he did not hesitate to throw open, bringing about an outpouring of screams from nearly every person in the room. He relished in the feeling of power that went through him from putting the element of fear into these people and he actually just stood there with his hands down at his side as the humans scattered farther back away from him. He spotted Holly standing near the back wall, her eyes wide with recognition while they others just stared at him in fear. This was going to be more then just a little fun. He would do what Bill told him but he was going to put his own spin on things. Starting first with an old ally.

"Well Hello Holly. How nice to see you again." He cackled sarcastically, eying the woman specifically in such a way that the other turned to look at her. "You didn't keep in touch after the last war we were in."

"You know him?" A young girl demanded, her mouth falling open unattractively. "You were in a war with him?"

"You sided with a vampire?" A male with stringy blonde hair asked, his face turning dark with suspicion. "You fought alongside a vampire? Instead of siding with your own kind?"

"Thanks a lot Eric." Holly grumbled, looking trapped and tense now that all attention was on her. "I was keeping that little tidbit to myself."

"Why are you here?" An older woman stepped forward, taking control of the confrontation and judging by the way the others shrank back it was clear that she was the leader of the group. "I'm Marnie and the leader of this coven. And I demand to know why you have come and interrupted our group."

"Well Marnie, you have quite a pair to speak to a vampire like that." Eric sneered at her, not feeling at all threatened by this old bitch as he moved forward and watched in satisfaction as the other kept on moving back. Marnie however stood her ground and stared him down which he did not appreciate. "I'm going to keep this short as I have better things to do. So I'm just going to say this once. You will dissolve your coven and no longer meet."

"I will do no such thing." Marnie protested, a flame of fury passing over her eyes as she seemed personally offended by this request. "We are doing no wrong or harm to anyone. We have a right to practice our craft however and whenever we please..."

"Yea, and no dead asshole can say we can't!" The man with stringy blonde hair shouted foolishly, momentarily feeling courageous. But when Eric sent a shut up or die look at him, he went quiet very quickly.

"Don't make this harder then it has to be. And trust me when I say it could get so much worse. I'm actually being nice by coming here and telling you this." Eric growled, already feeling the flicker of annoyance going through him. He had never had the best of tempers and being amongst witches who practiced necromancy was testing his limits. "So extend the respect and disband. Or else trouble is going to come to you all."

"Is that a threat Mr. Northman?" Marnie demanded, throwing down the old book she had been holding in her hand and leveled him with her own stare in obvious defiance. "Because I will not stand for a threat against my coven from a dead piece of..."

"Enough of this shit!" Eric snapped, feeling his temper break apart at the seems and he was seeing red before she could even finish her insult. He dropped his arms and went to move forward to grab the old bitch but she threw up her hand and muttered something he couldn't understand. He laughed and went to take another step forward but to his shock he couldn't and when he tried to move backwards, he found he couldn't do that either. He was frozen in place while the other members of the coven gathered around Marnie and joined hands while they all started chanted and then Eric felt something very strange come over him.

He felt himself slipping away.

* * *

><p><em><span>Later that night<span>_

"Hey Allie, it's me. I just got done with work and I just was going to stop by and hang out for a little while until Eric gets home. I didn't want you to be alone. So I'll be there in like 30 minutes. See you then."

Sookie hung up the phone and tossed her cell on to the passenger seat beside her as she refocused her eyes on the road and enjoyed the cool breeze that floated through the open window and ruffled her hair. It was a welcomed feeling as she had been running back and forth all over the place tonight. Merlotte's was extremely busy all evening which was rare in itself and Sam hadn't been prepared for that. It was only her and two other waitresses on duty and he had tried calling Holly to see if she could come in for a few hours but there had been no answer. So Sookie had been pushed to her limit and despite the chilliness in the air outside, she had ended up covered in sweat by night's end. And when she had stepped outside, she breathed in the air for a few moments before getting in her car and began the drive out to Shreveport. She had sent her cousin a text but there had been no response and the call went unanswered, but she knew Allie was home. As much as Allie would have put up a fight to go with Eric tonight, she knew her cousin would stick to her word to stay at the house to wait for his return. And knowing she was there all alone made Sookie pity her. Hence why she was making the trip.

She was only driving along the empty road outside of Shreveport for 20 minutes, seeing not other car in sight and no sign of life either. That was good, no one should be out on this road this late at night when the world was full of vampires and other supernatural things that would attack right now and no one would hear the screams. She just had this thought pass through her mind before her eyes caught sight of something about quarter of a mile up the road from her. She squinted hard, trying to see what it was and to her astonishment, it was a tall figure walking along the side of the road, wearing only a pair of black jeans and nothing else. Sookie sat back as her headlight shined on what was clearly a man walking and as she got closer, she felt a jolt hit her as she realized she knew exactly who it was.

"Eric? What the hell are you doing?" Sookie yelled out to him after she came to a near stop and rolled down her window so he could hear her. But despite her loud voice and the sound of the car rolling alongside him, he didn't even turn to look at her. And that was odd, maybe he just had a lot on his mind after dealing with the witches. So she tried again. "Eric, will you please stop and talk to me?"

"Are you talking to me?" He asked, actually coming to a stop and turning to face her and she was startled by his appearance. His normally slicked back blonde hair was now hanging all over the top of his head, his eyes which always held an element of mischief were now wide with curious innocence like he had never done anything wrong in his life. And why was he looking at her like he had never seen her before. "Did you just call me Eric?"

"Do you see any other Eric around?" She answered sarcastically, forcing herself not to roll her eyes as she tried to figure out what was up. "What is wrong with you? Why are you out here wandering around instead of going right home?"

"Home? Where is home?" He asked, sounding more like a lost little boy then the fearsome vampire he had been for the last thousand years. He cocked his head to the side and said. "My name is Eric?"

"Stop with the act, because it's really not funny." Sookie snapped, having no patience for whatever game he was playing right now. It would be so typical of him to pretend not to know anything just for some sick kind of game. "Look I'm not in the mood to deal with you while you're behaving so weirdly. Just get in the car so I can take you home to Allison."

"Who is Allison?" He questioned, his face never changing from the wide eyed innocent look he had since she came upon him. Normally she could look in his eyes and tell when he was playing around but now when she was straight into those blue orbs, she saw no traces of his usual self and that startled her. It was like she was looking into the eyes of a stranger even though she had know him for years. Eric was still watching her curiously. "And who are you? Who am I?"

"Eric, why are you acting like this? You were perfectly normal when you went to see the witches and now you're..." Sookie felt her voice stop before she actually heard it as it suddenly hit her with the force of a truck. Eric's strange behavior, his wandering along an empty road, not knowing who she was or his wife or even his own name. All of it occurring tonight when he had gone to confront a bunch of witches. He wasn't faking this at all. Those witches must have done something! "Oh no."

"Is something wrong?" He asked, stepping closer to the car with his eyebrows drawn low. "Why do you smell so delicious?"

"Damn it, he really doesn't know who he is." Sookie exclaimed, hitting the steering wheel with the heel of her hands before sitting back in horror and watched Eric out of the corner of her eye as he continued to just stand there in complete ignorant bliss. This was a nightmare in the making. She rubbed her hands over her face and groaned. "Oh fuck this is really not good."

**A/N: and now comes my favorite part of this fic...eric without his memories is going to be so much fun...i loved that part of season 4...cant wait to put my own spin on it..please review**


	6. Empty Places

**Chapter 6 Empty Places**

"Oh my God. This is so bad. So so bad." Sookie couldn't stop repeating this to herself as she sat there in her car on the empty road with a shirtless Eric staring down at her, completely obvious to who he was. This wasn't just bad, this was dangerous. Eric was wandering around with no memories. It would be so easy for someone to take advantage of him or report his odd behavior to someone in authority. Like Nan. Now Nan would definitely love to use this as an opportunity to take out Eric in the most permanent way possible. And that was why Sookie didn't hesitate in saying what she said next. "Get in the car Eric."

"Are you still talking to me?" He asked, looking like he thought she was referring to someone else but when he looked around and saw no one else there, he shrugged sheepishly. "Oh...I guess you were."

"Just get in. I need to take you someplace safe." Sookie urged him to walk around the side of the car, motioning with her left hand for him to climb in beside her and she watched anxiously as he went at a very human pace to the other side and opened the door. When he was finally situated, she could only look at him and say. "Oh man, I can't believe you are in trouble again."

"Am I always in trouble?" He questioned, folding his long legs up to fit himself into the small car before she started driving again. "If I am in trouble now, then I am grateful for your kindness."

"Whatever Eric." Sookie muttered, clenching her teeth together as she turned the car around and headed back towards Bon Temps and to Bill. Bill would help her decided what to do.

_25 minutes later_

"Bill! Are you home?" Sookie yelled out almost 30 minutes later as she led Eric into her house, covered in a blanket that she had found in her backseat and ushered him into the office located to the left of the front hallway. She made him sit down in a black leather chair which he did without resistance, showing just how much he was not like his old self as the real Eric would have made some kind of smart ass comment. But this version just did what he was told and it was completely out of this world weird. She luckily didn't have to yell out for Bill again as he appeared in a flash the next second and she barely had a chance to breathe in once or twice before she said. "We have a problem."

"Other then the fact that you brought your cousin's husband into my office with no shirt on." Bill pointed out, a playful smile on his face that showed he didn't think there was anything to be concerned about. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Yea it s a joke. If you consider finding Eric Northman on the side of the road with no memories a joke." She said sarcastically, furiously pointing to the much tamer, sweeter looking Eric who was now watching this exchange quietly as if he were awaiting his turn to be introduced into this conversation. Sookie watched Bill's eyes go to Eric, taking in his expression before the same realization dawned on him as it had on her. "I was driving to go see Allie so she wouldn't be alone while she was waiting for Eric to get back and I find him just walking out on the road like this. He didn't know who I was, what happened, or even his own name. It was like his mind was completely wiped clean."

"Damn it!" Bill exclaimed, suddenly slamming his fist into the wall so it shook and vibrated from the force. "Those witches must have cursed him and erased his memories."

"Who? Me?" Eric looked around innocently, his bewildered expression making him look more like a lost little boy.

"Do you see what I'm talking about?" Sookie rolled her eyes, turning her back on Eric as she focused her attention on her husband. "What do we do now?"

"Well first things first. We need to get Godric and Pam here as soon as we can." Bill stated, immediately going into damage control mode as he looked at Eric and then at her again. "I'll watch him while you go make the calls. But don't tell them the reason over the phone, if someone overhears then it could get the suspicions rolling. I don't want this getting out."

"I agree." Sookie took only a moment to nod and to squeeze her husband's hand before she turned and left the room quickly to call in reinforcements. She just hoped that Godric and Pam would have a better idea of how to handle this.

* * *

><p><em><span>15 minutes later<span>_

"Can you believe this shit?" Pam's screeching voice filled the air outside Bill and Sookie's house and it took all that Godric had not to respond in some kind of sarcastic remark. They had both arrived here at the same time, having obviously gotten the same phone call from Sookie about something pertaining to trouble with Eric and they were both already on edge and they didn't even know what was going on yet. But Pam seemed quite content on reacting as loudly and as ridiculously as she could. "What the fuck has he gotten himself into now?"

"Pam, must you do this right now?" Godric asked, feeling like an annoyed parent dealing with a rebellious child and Pam wasn't even his progeny. But he often found himself looking over her like she was. "Let's just go find out what happened..."

"Way ahead of you old man." Pam growled, whipping passed him into the house while he followed after her quickly. It didn't take more then one guess to find where the others were gathered as Pam came to a stop in the doorway of the office while Godric came up behind her and the both looked at the three figures sitting there. Pam frowned. "Why is Eric sitting there with no shirt on?"

"Whose Eric?" The former viking asked with a wide eyed look that very clearly showed he had no idea who he was talking about. But that couldn't be true, there was no way that Eric couldn't know who he was. "Oh wait, that's me."

"No shit Sherlock." Pam rolled her eyes sarcastically, not buying that there was even a problem. "So what's really the issue?"

"Uh can you not tell?" Sookie spoke up from beside Bill, raising her eyebrows like she almost was insinuating that Pam was an idiot for not picking up on it right away. "Eric's not exactly himself."

"What happened?" Godric asked, eying his child more closely and seeing the utterly blank look in his face and eyes and knew something was amiss, perhaps more then he originally thought. He knew something was wrong before he got the call, after all his bond with Eric still was as strong as ever. But it wasn't a feeling that he was hurt, so Godric couldn't quite figure it out. "I felt something through the blood bond but I couldn't tell what happened."

"Eric and Allison were visited by Nan Flanagan this evening and she basically gave him the push to do something about the necromancers. So he volunteered to go investigate and he was under strict orders not to do anything more then just verbally confront them." Bill said with such a tone that basically said he knew Eric probably hadn't done what he was suppose to and had most likely brought this on himself. But Bill didn't voice it if he was thinking it. "And they must have cursed him because he has no memory of himself, his life or anyone."

"I found him on the side of the road when I was going to Shreveport and he literally didn't know his own name. I thought he was just playing some kind of game, but then it kind of dawned on me that it was for real." Sookie explained, looking at Eric from the corner of her eye like they were all doing. Eric was blissfully ignorant of this and just looked around the room, lost in his own world. And that unfortunately was the reality right now. "I got him to get in the car and I got him here to the house as soon as I could."

"Who are you?" Eric suddenly demanded, nodding to Pam who hadn't taken her eyes off of him since they arrived. But then Eric turned around and nodded to Godric. "And you...who are you?"

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Pam snapped, her eyes flashing with anger as she stomped forward and pointed to herself and to then to Godric. "I'm your progeny. He's your maker. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Calm down Pam." Godric warned, trying not to sound like the authority figure in the room since Bill was ranked above him. But Godric was the oldest vamp in house and he felt somewhat responsible for being a little bit in charge. "So does Allie know what's going on? Has she been told yet?"

"Not yet. I tried calling her but she didn't pick up. I had to leave a voice message." Sookie told him with a cringe and he could understand why. They all dreaded having to deliver bad news and especially to someone who had already had so much of it in the past year. "I told her something was wrong and to get here as soon as possible. So hopefully Allie is on her way."

"Whose Allie?" Eric wanted to know, sitting up with an interested flicker in his eyes.

"She's your wife, you brainless moron." Pam of course could not be contained as she practically shouted this in her maker's face. But Eric didn't seem to mind.

"I have a wife?" He cocked his head to the side with a smile before looking around. "Where is she?"

"Oh dear god." Pam groaned, slamming her head so hard into the nearby wall out of frustration that the wooden shelves shook a little bit in retaliation. "This version of him is going to be more annoying then the old one."

* * *

><p><em><span>20 minutes later<span>_

I arrived in Bon Temps barely a half an hour later after listening to the voice mail I had gotten from Sookie. I was so busy trying to put away things in the kitchen that I hadn't picked up the phone. And when I finally did I wanted to kicked myself for not taking the call, especially when she said I needed to get her house as soon as possible because something was wrong with Eric. And being the person that I was, I assumed the worse and hauled serious ass all the way from Shreveport and probably breaking a ton of traffic laws but I could care less about that. I just knew that worry from earlier when I was here was going to end up meaning something and of course there it was in the form of Eric being in trouble. I slammed to a stop in front of Bill and Sookie's house and jumped out only to find Godric and Pam out on the porch awaiting my arrival.

"Allison, thank God you're here." Godric was the first to say something as I assumed he would considering it was his child we were talking about and I forgot all about the problems he and I had been having since the attack, it just wasn't important anymore. "We've been going crazy waiting for you."

"Yes hello Ms. Stackhouse. Or should I say Mrs. Northman?" Pam asked testily, her eyebrows drawn downward as she looked at me and even though she sounded mostly sarcastic, I knew she was worried about whatever was wrong with Eric. But of course it came out in a nasty comment. "Perhaps since I'm Eric's child and you're now his wife, I should call you Mommy."

"Pam, that's enough." Godric said sternly, his face showing the limits of his patience as he shot her a look that said to shut up. "Now is not the time for your childish antics."

"Godric, what the hell is going on?" I demanded, finally getting the chance to speak and I had to grab his arm to keep his attention on me or else I would never get an answer. "What happened to him? Sookie said something was wrong and I needed to get here as soon as possible."

"Eric is safe, no physical harm was done to him. So don't worry about that." Godric assured me, giving me relief to my biggest fear that Eric had been hurt somehow and I almost sank to the porch in pure jubilation. But that was short lived when Godric went on with his explanation. "But when he went to investigate the necromancers, they cursed him and took away his memories. He has no idea who he is."

"What the fuck?" I snapped, feeling furious rather then upset and proceeded to storm right passed Godric and Pam into the house, turning right into the living room where I could hear the murmur of voices as well as footsteps behind me before I came to a stop in the doorway and saw Sookie and Bill sitting beside a confused looking Eric who otherwise looked perfectly fine. But when he looked and met my eyes, I could visibly see him sit up straighter with excitement at my arrival and it wasn't excitement from recognition. I could see it in his eyes as well as hear it in his head that there was nothing there. No memory of himself, his maker, his child, Sookie or Bill or even me. It was all gone. I felt my lower lip shaking as I could barely make out the next few words. "Oh my god."

"Allie, it's going to be ok. We'll figure out how to fix this..." Sookie began to speak up, leaving her post by Bill and Eric and coming over to me but she stopped when I shook my head and raised my hand to keep her from speaking.

"Just...don't. Ok? You don't need to say anything." I told her, my eyes drifting around her to where Eric sat shirtless and wrapped up in a blanket and it took everything in me to not fall apart at this sight. I don't know how, but seeing him sitting there, clearly not knowing who he was was somehow worse then anything any of us have faced so far. "Don't say it. I can see how bad it is by hearing how empty his head is. There really is nothing there. He doesn't know anything."

"You're very beautiful." Eric spoke up from across the room, his head tilted to the side as he studied me for what was the first time for him. And in that moment we were strangers instead of a just married couple. His eyes held that same element of interest as before, but it was only because I was a new arrival and they had told him some things about himself before I got there. "Are you my wife?"

"Uh, yes.." I raised my eyebrows, shocked to hear my suspicions put right out there even though I already knew what the situation was. "Damn, he really doesn't remember anything does he?"

"He knows his name but that's it. We had to tell him the essential things before you got here but when I found him, he barely even knew he was a vampire." Sookie answered, looking back at Eric as we all were. Godric and Pam drifted back into the house, taking seats on various chairs in the living room while Sookie and I were the only ones who remained standing. "Those witches did a good job cursing him."

"This is exactly why I hate witches. They are all a pain in my ass." I groaned, wanting to rip my hair out in retaliation for the storm raging inside of me but I harnessed it in and moved around my cousin to take a seat on the couch across from Bill and Eric. My husband, who didn't even have a memory of us being married, could not stop staring at me and if he hadn't been cursed then I would have found it endearing but this stranger that now resided in Eric was just making it creepy. "So what do we do? How do we fix this?"

"We fucking kill those freaks but not before they reverse the curse." Pam hissed through clenched teeth and I could see that her fangs had protruded slightly as she seemed more then just a little annoyed by my statement. Her eyes glared at me as she stepped forward almost like she blamed me for this. "So don't act stupid bitch..."

"You be nice to her!" Eric suddenly shouted, flying to his feet in front of where I sat and with one hand shoved Pam clear across the room and into the front hallway on her face. It all happened so fast that no one spoke while Eric seemed to realize what he had done and his face went slack. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lashed out like that. But she was being rude."

"Look, we're not going to start fighting amongst ourselves. We have to approach this differently if we're going to resolve this crisis." Bill cut in, taking charge in that authoritative voice that he now used when talking to any of us. But I was glad for it. Someone had to be in charge and tell us what to do. "We are not going to go confronting these witches and threaten to kill them. Doing that will only cause more trouble."

"So we do nothing. Is that what you're saying?" Pam was pissed as she reentered the room and sent me a glare in passing before looking at Bill. "The almighty King thinks its best to just sit back and put up or feet. Are you fucking stupid? We can't just leave him like this."

"We're not going to. We will figure out something but I agree with Bill. Running in there and threatening those witches are not going to help us." Godric stated, standing up and walking over to where Eric was still standing in front of me and stood at his side in case Eric lashed out at someone else. "They could curse us or even kill us. And even if they don't, if we will one of their own then there is no way in hell that they will reverse this curse. And then we will just be back at square one."

"I'll talk to Holly. Maybe I can talk some sense into her and see if something can be done." Sookie suggested, trying to be another voice of reason even if they all just wanted to rush in and create bloodshed. "If I can get through to her, then maybe she can get through to Marnie."

"That sounds most reasonable. But until then, Eric's condition has to be kept under wraps." Bill said, eying Eric like the rest of us were. "He could be a danger to himself if anyone else besides us know what is going on."

"I agree. Keeping him out of the public eye is for the best because any unusual behavior could be seen as suspicious. And him not acting like his normal self is suspicious." I stated, looking up at Eric's innocent face and knew that if any of the normal public around Shreveport saw him like this they would know something was not right and it could get back to Nan. And then she might take more extreme measures to deal with him. So not letting it get out was for the best. I looked around the room. "I'll take him home with me tonight."

"Really?" Eric visibly brightened when I said this, looking more like an excited child then the vampire he was. "I get to go with my wife?"

"Allie is that really such a good idea?" Sookie asked, her face showing just how much she did not like this. "I mean, this all just happened, maybe we should..."

"Sookie, I know where you're going with this and trust me when I say it's not necessary." I shook my head at her, knowing she only meant to help but I did not need to hear what was about to come out of her mouth. "Eric is not a danger to me. And if you think he is then I will have Godric come with me and stay at the house."

"That's fine with me. I would rather be close by when Eric's like this. It would give me a peace of mind." Godric agreed, knowing what it meant to have me say that. "We should probably get him back. Dawn won't be too far off."

"Sounds good." I tried to keep my voice steady but inside I was dying at the thought of having to take my husband back to the house we shared when he didn't even remember any of it. But as I stood up, coming closer to Eric for the first time since coming here, I had to keep it together. "Come on, let's go."

"You're very kind." Eric said in passing to me, standing close to me and looking like he wanted to reach out and touch me. But instead he just leaned in and said. "Thank you for taking me to your home."

"It's your home too." I frowned, trying not to feel the sting that went through me as we moved towards the door but I couldn't help it. The sting felt like it was coming from a huge hole in my heart.

* * *

><p><em><span>10 minutes later<span>_

"Oh man, just when I thought things couldn't get any worse..." Sookie found herself saying with a sigh as she shut the front door after every one had left the house and she and Bill were finally alone and leaned against it for a moment with her eyes closed before whirling around to find her husband leaning against the door frame of the living room with his arms crossed. "Did you think things would get to this point?"

"I knew things wouldn't be calm for long because they never are when it comes to our worlds." Bill agreed, shaking his head and looking just as low as she felt. "But I never thought it would turn out to be like this."

"We should have seen it coming. I mean, we knew investigating witches never comes without a price and any and all situations should have been expected." Sookie sighed, her breath blowing up a piece of hair on her forehead in frustration. Was it ever possible to have longer then a few weeks of calmness? Why did they have yet another problem to deal with? And in some ways this was the worse possible enemy to fight because those witches held all the cards and if they weren't careful then Eric would never regain his memories and poor Allison would be miserable. It just wasn't fair. "But this was just not suppose to happen to them. They just got married."

"I know, I know. It's not right and it's certainly not fair after everything that they went through." Bill agreed, rubbing his hand down his face before he walked forward. "But this is the situation now and we just have to deal with it as best as we can. And we will deal with it. We just need a plan."

"I just don't like how these problems just seem to be piling up lately. The nightly visits from Nan, the Queen's assassination, your new position, the curse on Eric. It all just is happening so fast." Sookie reached out for her husband, needing to be holding on to him for strength. "And I don't know, but..."

"But what?" Bill asked, his face frowning as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his embrace where she felt safest. "What were you going to say?"

"I've just had this thought in the back of my head since I found Eric. It just seems odd that's all that these events are happening so close together. The queen's death and Eric's curse..." Sookie began to say, giving voice to a tiny worry she had been harboring all night. She looked up at her husband and sighed. "And call me crazy for even saying this. But do you think there is a connection?"

"It's funny you say that because I too have been wondering the exact same thing." Bill surprised her when he said this, because she thought she was over thinking the crisis too much and adding unnecessary drama to a problem already filled with it. But if Bill just admitted to the same thing, then maybe it was really something to worry about it. "I just think it is too coincidental to not mean something."

"What could it mean though?" Sookie wondered out loud, trying to see passed the unknown for an answer but there was nothing to see. "Two bad situations coming right after the other. It's like..well it sounds like..."

"Like someone is behind it." Bill finished for her, his face going dark as he seemed sure that this was the case. "But who could it be? And why would someone do this to us? We haven't gone after anyone, its always the outside coming after us.."

"Well, if there is someone in the shadows, then it will only be a matter of time before they are revealed."

* * *

><p><em><span>20 minutes later<span>_

"This... is your house?" Eric asked me nearly half an hour later when we walked in the front door, his voice filled with awe as he looked around at our home for the first time with this new mind frame. He had been mostly silent on the car ride here and actually, neither Godric or I said anything either. I don't think anyone really knew what to say and it was going to take a lot of getting use to before we found a rhythm, but I was hoping he would get his memories back before we would get use to this new side of him. But there was no time for that kind of thinking at the moment as Eric stood in the middle of the hallway looking around again before his eyes went to me. "You have an impressive home."

"For God sakes Eric it's your home too." I snapped lightly, feeling more annoyed at his new personality then I thought I would be and I almost felt bad about it. This new Eric was as gentle and as nice as they came. I knew that because when he did speak in the car, it was often a compliment that came out of his mouth. But it wasn't his real self and I hated that. Still, I tried to reign it in. "Sorry, it's just been a very long night."

"For all of us." Godric spoke up from behind me, having decided to stay out of this until I needed him out of respect for me and I appreciated that. But even more so I was grateful when he stepped forward and joined the conversation. "Eric, I know you don't remember this, but this is your house too. You live here with Allison."

"I must be the envy of all vampires in the area." He replied with a goofy smile, not understanding at all why this was so serious. He seemed quite content to be led around by us and having ample amounts of time to just stare at me like he never wanted to look away. The way he was doing right now. "Do we sleep together?"

"You wouldn't remember if we did." I said with a huff, unable to stop myself from rolling my eyes. It was a very Eric thing to say but he didn't know that and seeing little parts of his old self was slowly chipping off pieces of my heart. "But we are married, so we did act like normal couples. Or as normal as we could."

"Why doesn't your blood smell normal?" He questioned, going in a different direction then I had been expecting. "The blonde who found me smelt kind of the same, but your blood is much stronger. Why?"

"Oh man, so many questions." I groaned, rubbing my temples with my fingertips. I forgot how much information we carried around in our brains and now with Eric not remembering any of it, until he was cured, I would have to teach him all over again. I looked to Godric for help and he seemed to pick up on my dwindling frustration because he took charge of the conversation.

"You know what? I think it's time to head down to the basement. Dawn is quickly approaching." He explained to Eric who looked out the window by the door to the sky that was getting lighter. Godric, ever the maker that he was, took Eric by the shoulder and turned him around and aimed him towards the door. "Go on, I'll be down right after you."

"Thank you for your kindness." Eric said to me instead of addressing Godric. His hands shot out like he was going to reach for me but I jumped nervously when I saw this motion. And when he saw my reaction, he dropped his hands back down to his sides and began to apologize profusely. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"Eric, as your maker I command you to go down to the basement." Godric interrupted and it seemed like the maker authority still had a hold on Eric as he was forced backwards towards the basement door that he soon disappeared behind. Both Godric and I stood there in silence and listened to Eric's footsteps go down the staircase before going silent as he entered his rest area and I could no longer hear him. Then Godric turned to me with a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry this happened to you. But I have to say I am amazed at how well you are taking it."

"I guess I don't really have a choice." I shrugged, turning my face away towards the floor when I felt a familiar flush come over cheeks and I knew I was only seconds away from crying and I didn't want Godric to see how close I was to the edge. But I forgot one key factor, Godric and I still had a blood bond and he could my emotions as clear as I was feeling them. So he knew the torment I was experiencing and when he stepped forward and touched his hand to my shoulder, that was all it took for me to fall apart be overcome by tears. Godric ended up embracing me, holding me tight against his chest as I began sobbing. "I can't do this. I can't deal with this on my own."

"You don't have to. I will be here to help you. Don't worry." He assured me in the same tone he had used when we were at our tightest bond. I knew things had changed with us tonight because they had to. I could no longer hold on to the anger and fear I felt towards him from the attack. I didn't need that right now. Right now I just needed my best friend. I raised my face off his chest and looked him in the eye.

"Help me take care of him." I pleaded, knowing I couldn't do this on my own, not when it had taken us all completely by surprise. I wiped a batch of tears off my cheeks and repeated my plea. "I need you to help me take care of him."

"You are my best friend and I will do anything you ask of me." Godric replied softly, leaning forward to kiss my forehead. "It will be alright. I'll be here with you."

**A/N: Oh i had so much fun writting this chapter. Its so interestign to be doing this kind of story line. Thanks to the brillant mind of Charlaine Harris and kind of Allan ball ( not too happy with him since he killed off godric...yes, i'm still holding a grudge about that)..but this starts off a whole new level of fun and drama...cant wait to write more**


	7. Round and Round

**Chapter 7 Round and Round**

"I can't believe I'm actually going to go in there." I mumbled to myself as I stood outside the Moon Goddess Emporium building the next afternoon with my hands on my hips and a glare in my eye as I stared straight ahead at the closed door and wondered whether I would actually end up doing what I came here to do. I had been standing out here for the past 30 minutes, trying to summon up the courage to step through that door and find the bitch responsible for hurting my husband. I guess perhaps the reason I was also stalling was because of Bill's warning. He had specifically given our group orders to not interfere with any of the necromancers and at the time I had agreed. But when I woke up this morning, finding the bed next to me empty and I remembered what had happened, I had been nearly blinded by my rage. And after a few hours of trying to fight it back, I found myself standing here unable to turn back. And now, I didn't want to turn back. I straightened myself up and nodded. "Let's do this."

I slipped inside the dimly lit store, finding it crowded with shelves and hanging things with what seemed like a million candles sitting around the room. There was no one in sight, but I could hear footsteps shuffling around somewhere in the room behind the front desk. I peeked through the barely open doorway and sat pillowed positioned in a circle on the floor and it occurred to me that that was where the incident had occurred. I stood there for a minute just staring, trying to imagine how it had exactly played out and I found myself just getting angrier by the second. It was a miracle I wasn't lasing out and breaking something because I felt such a pull to do that. How could I not? This group, this coven had stolen every memory from Eric's head and left me with this empty shell that I had to take care of and somehow fix. I was angry and I was going to take it out on ….

"Can I help you?" A meek voice asked me, breaking my focus and drawing my eyes off to the left side of the desk where an older woman was standing where it had otherwise been empty. She was in a long dress that stopped at the tops of her brown shoes and her light brown hair was stringy and slightly unkempt. I could tell that this was Marnie, it was just a feeling I was tuned into. But she wasn't what I was expecting to see. After knowing she was the one responsible for erasing Eric's memories, I thought I would see a monster. But she looked so normal, like a woman my Grandmother would have been friends with. She approached me with a kind look, motioning to a small table next to us. "I assume you came in here for a reading..."

"Uh...um...yes I did." I somehow managed to agree to even though it was far from the reason why I was here. But I didn't want to give away that I knew what she had done because it could end up putting me in danger and with it being the middle of the day, no vampires could come to my rescue. So I had to act like a normal person or customer, or whatever you would call a person coming into a place like this. I tried to put a smile on my face. "I never had one done before and I was curious."

"Most people are. Take a seat." She told me, pointing to the chair that wasn't facing the door while she sat across from me and rubbed her hands together. Her eyes studied me for a second. "Do you have anything of a loved one on you? It helps bridge the gap between the living and the dead."

"Oh, yes I do." I nodded, removing the thin bracelet from around my left wrist, the last piece of jewelry my gran had given me before her death a few years earlier. I handed it with reluctance to Marnie, who cupped it in both hands just as a slight wind blew through the room, ruffling my loose hair and startling me, but not enough to flinch. I was use to odd things happening at this point. "Um, my Grandmother gave me that..."

"I know, she's here." Marnie shushed me with her statement, her eyes closing as she appeared to be concentrating on whatever it was that she was doing to converse with my Grandmother. "She wants you to know that she's ok."

"That's a relief." I couldn't help but let down my guard a little bit at this comment. I had always wondered if my Gran was at peace after she died and now I could put that notion to rest. But the only problem now was that, with my guard down, it let in something that I wasn't expecting to hear. Another voice.

_"Allison, it's me Gran. I know you can hear me. I haven't forgotten your gift."_ Marnie flinched, her eyes going to me suspiciously and I know she had clearly heard my gran speaking to me. _"Allison, I don't have much time to warn you..."_

"Warn her? Warn her of what?" Marnie demanded, her face growing defensive immediately like she was deeply offended that my grandmother's spirit would suggest she was a danger to me. "I haven't done anything to her."

_"She may not have done anything herself, but she is being possessed by a __spirit named Antonia. That's the one responsible for what was done to your husband..."_

"The vampire was your husband?" Marnie questioned, confusion filling her face as she tried to follow along with my Gran's voice as well as speaking to me. "I didn't do anything to him..."

_"She's lying, she helped Antonia erase Eric's memories. She knows exactly what she did." _Gran was adamant and I knew enough that when she sounded like that, there was no fighting her on it. She would remain that way until she got her point across. _"She knows who you were when you walked in here..."_

"No I didn't." Marnie protested, looking at me as she shook her head vehemently. But she was a stranger and if my grandmother was warning me about her then I was taking my Gran's side. "I swear I didn't..."

_"Don't listen to her, she is attempting to be innocent so she can get you to side with her. She knows the power you have stored deep inside of you and she wants it."_ Gran sounded scared for me and it was only when she talked like that did I feel the flicker of apprehension I should have felt when I first walked in here. _"Allison, get up from that table and walk out of this building. Go now."_

"I'm not finished yet." Marnie grumbled the moment I broke focus and removed the bracelet from her hand and jumped up before she could move or even flinch. "Wait don't go. Stay for a second and we can..."

"Look lady, when my Grandmother tells me to haul out ass out of a place. I don't stand around and ask questions. I just go." I retorted, knocking over the chair in my haste to scoot back from the table. I turned on my heels and as quickly as my feet would allow it, I ran out the front door without looking back.

* * *

><p><em><span>That night<span>_

"Oh man, if Bill ever finds out I went to confront Marnie then he will be so pissed." I mumbled to myself as I pushed around the food I had set on the plate in front of me for dinner but couldn't bring myself to eat just yet. I was too busy contemplating what I had done today and whether or not I should say something. I sighed heavily, running my fingers through my loose hair before I turned to look at the darkening sky. "Yup, he'll be pissed."

Of course he would be pissed. He had strictly given orders, to the vampires and to Sookie and I to not interfere with the necromancers and that had just been last night. And what do I go and do? I go to the very place where they gathered to confront the leader. I was such a moron, it could have gone badly. But when I went there I just did not care. I was blinded by my fury about what they had done to my husband and nothing could have stopped me from going there. Bill may have power over the vampires but he wasn't my King. He couldn't order me to not do something. But he was my cousin in law, he was family and I should have the courtesy to at least attempt to follow his orders. But I hadn't and I was the only one who knew what I had done. And I could chose to keep this to myself until the opportunity presented itself for me to own up to it.

"Um...Hello..." A timid sounded voice spoke up from the doorway and I lifted my head to find my absent looking husband standing there with his hands hanging down by his sides and his hair all askew as he looked at me like he was expecting me to tell him what to do now. I stood up from my chair at the table just as he walked across the tiled floor towards me. His face had changed and I could just detect the movement of his nostrils flaring which meant only one thing. He had picked up my scent and I was already seeing a hunger lust starting to build up in his eyes. His head tilted to the side before he said without restraint. "You smell good."

"Oh God." I rolled my eyes, knowing he wasn't commenting on my perfume. I edged around the side of the counter, heading for the cupboard where all the True Blood was stored as I knew what he was getting at. I removed a bottle and after I uncapped it, I handed it to Eric who had gotten a lot closer to me. "Here. Drink this."

"No, I don't want it." He replied, putting the bottle down on the counter with force, his hunger seeming to grow as his eyes went down to my neck and he actually reached out to flick the hair off my shoulder. "I want to taste you."

"I don't think so." I frowned, trying to remain calm as I shot a look up at Eric before going to walk around him. But I didn't get more then a few steps away before he latched his hand to my arm and he yanked me back in front of him so hard that it made a pain shoot up my arm. I glared up at him, knowing I needed to be firm so he knew he couldn't walk all over me. "Eric, let me go. You're hurting me."

"Oh...Oh I'm sorry." Eric seemed to have a moment of clarity where he realized what he was doing and he immediately let go of me, stepping back with an apologetic expression on his face. "Forgive me, I was just so hungry. I only thought it was ok because you are my wife."

"Well it's not ok. And in fact, it's up to me to decide when it's ok." I told him as firmly as I could, reaching around him to the counter where my fingers grasped the bottled blood and I proceeded to force it into his hand. "Now drink this. It will take the edge off."

"Thank you." He said, accepting it with no more resistance as I walked back to the table to sit down and finish my dinner. All was quiet for a few minutes as I picked up my fork and sat there in my own thoughts. It was too quiet. I took a second to glance over at Eric, only to find him still standing there watching me. But it was more then just watching, it was studying like he wanted to memorized every feature of my face. But when he realized I was watching him now too, he looked away almost shyly. "You really are beautiful."

"You say that a lot." I replied softly, setting down my utensils as we stared at each other. "Like a lot a lot.."

"It's the truth. You are stunningly beautiful. I am a very lucky vampire to have such a beautiful wife." He stated almost proudly even though he had no clue about anything as his blue eyes never left my face. "Did I not say it before?"

"Not like that..." I shrugged, not able to remember a time when the old Eric had paid me a compliment as sweetly as this one was. It was so off putting to hear it come out of his mouth and just further reminded me of how far gone he was. " And not this often."

"But you're my wife..." Eric tilted his head to the side, his hand still gripping the bottle. "I should be saying it all the time."

"You say that because you don't remember who you are." I told him, getting up from the table and walking over to the garbage can to dump my uneaten dinner in there before going to the sink and practically slamming the dish down before I looked at him again. "It's easy for you to say that because you don't know any better."

"Have I upset you?" He asked, picking up on my change of moods. "If I have then I apologize."

"It's not your fault. It's those witches." I said bitterly, furiously wiping at my eyes to avoid any fallen tears. I didn't want to cry in front of this version of Eric. And actually I didn't like crying in front of the old Eric. But at least then, I knew that version. I didn't know this one and it felt odd to break down in front of him. So I tried to push that back as I answered him. "We never get a break and this is one of the worse setbacks we've had."

"But it will get better..." Eric asked me, his face holding all the innocence of a child. "Won't it?"

"I don't know anymore..."

* * *

><p><em><span>25 minutes later<span>_

"Ok, Godric we're all here tonight just like you asked us to be..." Helen said upon walking through the front door of Godric's house with Gabriel by her side and a smile on her face. But that smile quickly went away when she spotted Louie sitting on the other side of the room from him, and he too did not seem entirely happy to see her. She wished Godric had told her that Louie was going to be here when he called her earlier, but he hadn't. Not that she wouldn't have come even if she did now before hand, but at least then she would have been prepared. She paused in the doorway and it took a nudging from Gabriel before she was able to step into the room and take a seat with her progeny before going on. "What's the problem?"

"Eric is." Godric began right way, eying both her and Louie before deciding it wasn't worth saying about just yet and went on with his explanation. "You see, there is a group of necromancers here in Shreveport that Bill wanted to have investigated to see if they posed any threat to us..."

"Of course they pose a threat, they're witches after all." Helen couldn't hide the disgust in her voice when he mentioned this particular type of witch. She had no soft spot for witches based on her encounters with them over her thousand year old life. And necromancers she especially hated since they were the worse kind of witch. And if a group of them were here in Shreveport, then they had to be put out immediately. She turned to look at Godric. "But what does Eric have to do with this?"

"He was the one that went to check it out last night and something happened because they cursed him and erased his memories. He has no idea of anything. Not himself or me or Allie." Godric explained, closing his eyes as he remembered holding his friend last night as she fell apart over this new problem they ad to face. It was probably one of the worse situations because it was like a whole new person was inside Eric, he wasn't himself. And facing these witches with him not knowing who he is was just more then any of them were willing to handle. " Sookie was the one who found him on the side of the road. She brought him back to Bon Temps and then after Pam and I got there, Allie arrived and was told everything."

"And let me guess, she didn't take it well." Louie pointed out, his face darkening so quickly that Helen couldn't help but look at him for more then a few seconds. It was a look that was derived more then just because of a threat against one of their own. It was a protective look that came from hurting his friend and that was Allie. And seeing him get like that was almost sweet. Louie grit his teeth. "That poor girl. This isn't fair to her. Or him."

"No it's not and we're going to fix it somehow. We just need to be careful about how we go about it. We need the head witch alive so she can reverse the curse. And if we don't have a fool proof plan then they could curse us or we can never recover Eric's memories if we kill them prematurely." Godric finished the explanation by leaning forward and hanging his arms over his knees. He was quiet for a moment, giving Helen another chance to look at Louie who was now looking at her like he was trying to communicate something to her. But Godric lifted his head again to speak. "This is a touch situation."

"Is there something else you're not telling us Godric?" Helen saw the look in his eyes that she recognized when he had left something out and she didn't hesitate to call him on it. "You look like there is something more."

"There is. The King doesn't think this is just a random case of a crime against a vampire. He thinks it was planned." Godric replied, sitting back up in his chair with his eyes flaming in a way none of them had seen before. It was the look only a maker could have when their child was threatened. Helen had had that look plenty of times with Gabriel. "The assassination of the Queen and the curse on Eric comes too close together and he is sure that someone is behind it."

"Who would send a bunch of witches after vampires?" Gabriel wondered out loud as they all were thinking the same thing. "The only person that comes to mind is that Fellowship of the Sun asshole.."

"Steve Newlin is not a threat to us right now. We have spies trailing him at all time so we would know right away if he had planned something. So it has to be someone else. We just don't know who." Godric frowned, obviously not use to not having the answer about something being that he and Louie were some of the oldest vampires around. "But until the crisis is over, we need to stand united. All of us."

"I agree." Helen nodded, tearing her eyes from Louie and patted Gabriel's arm. "We will do what we can to help Allie and Eric."

"I will too." Louie spoke up, his eyes trailed straight ahead. "Whatever is needed, I'll do."

"And just so we're clear..." Godric began to say, suddenly looking at her and then at Louie with warning eyes before waving his hands at them. "Whatever issues you two have with each other and whatever is going on, you are going to put on the back burner right now. We need to have all our focus on the crisis now, not the tension between you two."

"Absolutely." Louie was the first of them to agree, before getting to his feet and walking over to grab her arm before she could protest. "And just to make sure that's possible, Helen and I are going to have a little chat."

"I don't think..." Helen began to say but Louie had already yanked her out the front door and was pulling her into the dark night.

* * *

><p><em><span>10 minutes later<span>_

"Why are you avoiding me?" Louie demanded when he had dragged Helen far enough out into the woods where they wouldn't be overheard and he finally let her go, watching the way she crossed her arms and stepped back from him as if he were contagious. "And why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" She asked, staring straight at him with her eyebrows raised far up like she had no idea what he was referring to. But despite the passage of time, he still knew her all too well. Even when she was trying her hardest to bullshit him. "I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Helen, come on. You know exactly why I dragged you out here." Louie pushed, not willing to take her crap right now when there was so much other stuff going on. Stuff that was way more important then their hang ups. He had agreed to put this aside for Godric so they all could be in this together. But in order to do that, he needed to find some common ground with Helen and that meant that they had to talk about their encounter. "Why are you refusing to talk about what happened?"

"What happened?" She threw back, tossing her shimmering blonde hair behind her shoulder in a particularly cold way that he had never seen her do. There was something very distant in her eyes, like she was purposely trying to push him away by pretending not to know what he was talking about. "You're not being very specific."

"Fine, you want specific?" He snapped, losing patience and reaching out to grab her again before she could even think of pulling away. "Let's talk about the other night when we were fucking in the dirt for the first time in a thousand years like animals. Is that specific enough for you?"

"Why are you so damn angry?" She asked, her face falling like his crude words had struck a chord with her and she managed to pull herself away from him furiously. "I thought you would be happy that I don't want to talk about it."

"Why would I be happy about that?" Louie hissed, her dancing around the subject matter was really angering him. "Why would you say that?"

"Because like I said that night at the bar, I know it didn't change anything and you don't have to make yourself feel better by talking it out with me." She shot back, her green eyes flashing like she was more trying to convince herself then him of what she was saying. "I'm not naïve about how things work. Maybe I was when we first met but not anymore. I'm giving you an out here. You got to fuck me and I'm not after you to talk about it. That's all you."

"I don't want an out." Louie practically shouted, wanting to rip something out of the ground in frustration. "I just want to talk."

"About what?" She snapped, tightly crossing her arms. "What's there to talk about? We had sex and we're still at the same place we were when I first revealed myself. So why torture us both by rehashing the moment over and over again?"

"Because it wasn't just about the fucking for me!" Louie roared, losing all control over his emotions as it all came pouring out. It was true that the sex with Helen wasn't just about the physical. It had meant more to him even though he really did just enjoy the intimacy. But it was with Helen so of course it meant more to him then if it had been with anyone else. He just needed to figure it out. "I don't know what it means for us and I don't know where it's suppose to go from here. But I do know it was more then just about the physical aspect of it. And I need to talk it out with you to understand it."

"Well I don't really want to talk about it." She shook her head so her hair partially hid her face. "Talking will get us no where because we both know what the end result will be. We will just be back to where we were, talking every night..."

"Is that not enough for you? Do you want more?" He asked, seeing something in her face that made him change direction from where he was going. He wanted to yell some more but he knew her face all too well and he was able to pick up on a pause in her features, suggesting that he had gotten to her. And he was going to hold on to that. "Were you hoping that it would evolve into something more then a friendship?"

"I guess we'll never know." She shrugged, staring at him for a second like she was going to add something else to it but then decided not to and instead flashed away into the woods before he could protest. Louie watched her go, disappearing further into the darkness and could only think of one thing.

Why was she so afraid to talk about what happened?

* * *

><p><em><span>Back at the house<span>_

"Alright Godric, I'll see you in a little bit. Bye." I said into the phone, listening to my newly reinstated best friend say the same thing before the call ended and I finally set the phone down on the table in front of me. I had the smallest of smiles on my face for the first time today and it was thanks to Godric. After coming back to the house last night, something had happened between us to send up back to the place we use to be in when we were best friends. He had done what he said he would do, do whatever I needed him to do. So when I had asked him to leave last night so I could be alone, he had done it. When I left him a message to come over so I wouldn't be alone with this new Eric, he called back to not just say he would be there, but that he would also have Helen, Gabriel and Louie come as well. Godric was trying to do everything in his power to make this easy on me and I was grateful for his efforts. Because Sookie and Bill couldn't be there with me every single night even though they would try. But they had their own lives to lead and it wasn't like Eric was giving me trouble that I couldn't physically handle on my own. So that left Godric to help me and I was glad it worked out that way because it would give us a chance to fix what was wrong with our friendship and really get it back to how it use to be before the attack.

I left the kitchen and walked through the house and came to a stop in the doorway of the living room. I had heard Eric come down from the second floor but he hadn't sought me out. Instead he had taken a seat here in this room and from what I gathered, he had been staring at the fire since then. It was quite a change from the way he had been when I first saw him this evening and I wasn't sure what to make of it. I mean, I was glad that he wasn't following me around and reminding me just how much he wasn't like his old self. But him just sitting there looking the way he did was not offering me any comfort either. I left my post by the door and walked across the carpet towards the couch and as I sat down next to him, I saw that his face was full of frustration.

"Eric?" I began, watching as his head slowly turned to face me, his expression never changing as his eyes landed on my face. "Are you ok?"

"I'm..." He stopped speaking as if he was trying to figure out how to describe how he was feeling right now. He may have looked angry and frustrated but there was such a hint of innocence in that face that he still looked nothing like his old self. He looked at me again and shrugged. "I am very frustrated."

"Why?" I asked with a frown, fighting the urge to reach out and touch even though he was still my husband. But he felt like such a different person now that I felt like it would be trying to comfort a stranger. So I kept my hands to myself. "Why are you frustrated?"

"Because I hate not knowing who I am. Ever since last night, everyone around here has been telling me who I am and who I know. And I just don't feel connected to it. And it's extremely frustrating." Eric balled up his hands on top of his legs, his honesty coming clear through in a way it never had before he lost his memories. "It makes me feel out of control and I do not like that feeling."

"That's so weird, because what you just described is a trait of your old personality. The old Eric would have said the exact same thing." I pointed out, feeling a small twitch of my lips as I saw this very small glimmer into Eric's stolen self. They may have taken his memories away but he still had a connection to himself and I was seeing it. "Your real self is still in there somewhere."

"I wish I had it back. I feel lost." He stated in such a forlorn voice that it made my heart shudder and I felt that urge to touch him again. He faced me straight on so I couldn't look away from those wounded blue eyes. "You've been very kind to me..."

"I would hope so, I'm still you wife even if you can't remember that." I said, feeling my chest squeeze painfully. That brief moment where I almost forgot that Eric wasn't cursed, that moment was over. It all came rushing back to me. "I know it's hard on you too, but I will take care of you until this is over."

"You are very sweet to a vampire, we must have been great lovers." Eric actually smirked as he said this and just like that I was back to seeing his old self shining through again. But it was short lived as he stared at his fists with that same lost and frustrated look. "I just wish I could remember you, remember us."

"Yea, I wish you could too." I sighed and then the room went silent as we both turned to stare at the fire, neither of us saying a word for a very long time.

* * *

><p><em><span>40 minutes later<span>_

"Now you two are going to behave right?" Godric asked Helen later that night as she stood together with Gabriel and Louie inside the front door of Allie and Eric's house and listened to Godric issue them both a warning as if he honestly thought they would cause a scene in someone's home. Helen looked off to the side where Louie was standing, finding him not looking at her. After their conversation earlier in the woods that ended with her running off, she wasn't expecting to have to see him again tonight. But when Godric called and asked her and Gabriel to join him and Louie at Allie's house to keep her company, she couldn't just say no. And now that they were all here, she was just hoping they could all get through it in one piece. Godric narrowed his eyes. "I don't know what is going on and I don't care. Right now, the only thing that matters is that girl. Anything is not welcome. Are we clear?"

"Yes father." Louie said sarcastically, his face guarded like it had been earlier and she wasn't entirely use to seeing him like that. He was usually so carefree and sweet and now he was looking like everything annoyed him, especially her. And she worried whether anything could make him stop looking like that. Louie stood up straight and nodded towards her progeny. "Are you going to give Gabriel a talking to as well?"

"No. Why would I? He doesn't give me problems like you two do." Godric shot back, no longer acting like the calm, collected pushover they all thought he would forever be. But the people who truly knew him the best, knew he could be fiercely protective in the most unexpected of ways. And he wasn't the doormat that everyone saw. "Just do me this one favor and don't cause trouble..."

"Whose causing trouble?" Allie's voice joined the fray in the front hallway and they all turned to see her standing there with a confused looking Eric standing behind her, completely out of place. Allie's face seemed to flood with relief when she saw them all standing there and she left her place by Eric to move towards them. "I'm glad you guys are here. I needed a distraction."

"Well prepare to be distracted." Louie said good naturally, his tone completely different from the voice he had been using since they met up and he moved forward towards Allie, sending Helen a look before he walked over and embraced the tiny brunette tightly. And for a second, the air was still as Helen watched Louie and Allison interact. He seemed like a different person with her, more open and more protective. She could see his face from the side and saw the concern and worry written there for his friend. That expression said he would have done anything in his power to make this right for her and despite Helen's problems with him, she couldn't help but be touched by his sweetness towards the girl. Louie pulled back slightly to look at her with a sympathetic half smile. "I'm sorry about what..."

"Oh my god." She exclaimed, all traces of stress and sadness gone from her young pretty face as she moved away from Louie like she had been shocked with electricity with her mouth hanging open. "You and Helen slept together?"

"What?" Louie looked equally shocked, quickly looking around to see if they all heard and with them being vampire of course they all heard the comment. "You read my mind?"

"You were just thinking about it?" Helen knew that if she had still been human, her face would be fire engine red right now. She was completely mortified at her secret being uncovered by accident. She had no intention of telling anyone else and she had forgotten that Allison could read their minds. So she must have heard it when Louie and her were touching and knowing that their night together had been revealed when they were all standing so close together was even more uncomfortable. Helen hid her face behind her hands, no longer able to look anyone in the eye. "Oh dear God, I am so embarrassed."

"I can't believe that's why you guys were acting weird the past few nights. And I can't believe it even more that I didn't know about it." Godric looked so caught off guard and Helen couldn't even blame him for it. She never wanted him to find out like this, if ever. And now it was in the worse way possible. He looked between them both and scratched the back of his head. "We were suppose to come here to keep Allison company and I find out this instead? Well this makes things uncomfortable..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just blurt it out like that." Allison chimed in, looking ashamed for causing a rippled effect through the group for her observation. "My head just isn't working correctly right now and I didn't stop to think..."

"Don't apologize, I think it's great. I never liked the idea of her hiding it in the first place." Gabriel was laughing at the situation, finding humor in it that the rest of them couldn't see. But at least he was honest about what he said. He had spoken about how he didn't think it was right that she wasn't admitting to it but he couldn't say anything about it because Helen had forbidden him from it. But he never failed to remind her of it whenever they were together. And now there was no reason to hide it any more. Gabriel rolled his eyes before saying. "I'll never understand why vampires hide the dumbest things."

"Speaking of hiding things..." Allie frowned, her eyes going from Louie and her to Gabriel and if possible, her face was filled with even more surprise. But this surprise was on a different level. "You met him too?"

"Who are you talking about?" Helen asked, wondering what the hell Allison and Gabriel could have in common to make her look at him the way she was. Clearly the two of them met the same person judging by her comment. But who? "What's going on now?"

"You were just thinking about the vampire you met. You saw him a few nights ago at Fangtasia. I just met him the other night, the night Eric was cursed..." Allie explained, eying Gabriel so oddly that Helen felt detached from them. She kept staring at him like she expected him to speak but when he didn't, she went on. "Why did you have him on your mind? You know, the vampire named Alec."

"Well, for some reason I haven't been able to push him out of my mind." Gabriel explained, glancing at her like she knew he would when that particular name was mentioned. "something was off about him and he seemed very interested in Helen that night. He kept on making it seem like he knew her."

"He did the same thing when I met him in the store." Allie exclaimed excitedly like she was happy that someone else had just confirmed her suspicions. "He said he knew her from years ago..."

"But I don't know a vampire named Alec. But that was my younger brother's name." Helen found herself saying in a much quieter voice then she wanted. It wasn't often when she spoke about her brother, mostly because it was too painful to remember the loss of him from that time. He was the only relative of hers that she missed so desperately and the only one that made her wish she had gone back to see before he was gone forever. Gabriel knew all this and that was probably the reason for this strange vampire sticking to him the way it had. "It was probably just the name that struck a chord."

"But when I met him, I didn't know you had a younger brother named Alec. And I clearly heard your name in his head, as well as seeing your face. He knew you." Allison protested, completely ignoring the rest of them and Eric as her attention was now on the only other female in the house. "He said he knew years ago."

"I remember the vampires I have met over the years. And I have never met or seen in passing, an Alec who was a vampire." Helen felt her face tighten uncomfortably, she didn't like talking about her little brother and she really didn't like doing it around so many people. It just felt awkward, especially when Louie was now even looking at her almost sympathetically like he knew what was going on in her head. "This vampire had to have been lying."

"I know what you look like and I saw your face in his mind, so he wasn't lying." Allison shook her head stubbornly, looking like she was completely certain that she was right and if anything, that just annoyed Helen to the 12th degree. Allison moved ahead. "How does he know you?"

"That's what I would like to know." Godric commented, tapping his fingers on his chin like he was trying to be tactful about something. And then he just looked at her with his lips tightly pressed together. "Helen, is there any possibility that your brother is a..."

"Godric, I know where you're going with this and you better stop it right there. Alec has not turned into a vampire, there's just no way. And even if he did, don't you think I would know?" She snapped, feeling furious that her hidden pain was being brought out for discussing as well as this ridiculous idea that this stranger was her brother simply because he had the same name. The vampire had probably just seen her at the bar and was playing some sick joke. She glared at the rest of them. "Alec died hundreds of years ago with the rest of my family. End of story."

She didn't even stop to talk herself out of it before she turned on her heel and flashed out of the house before anyone could respond.


	8. Tears don't dry on their own

**Chapter 8 Tears don't dry on their own**

_A few nights later_

"She's so beautiful..." The voice said softly, reaching through the haze of sleep I was waking up from on the couch in the dimly lit living room and startled me when it broke the silence. I instantly sat up, not aware that it was nighttime as I struggled to focus my vision. I was still in a daze when I panicked, thinking it was an intruder as I grabbed the gun I always kept nearby these days and randomly shot in the direction of the voice. I heard the bullets make contact and the sound of pain screamed through the air as my assailant fell to the floor. "What the fuck?"

"Oh shit. Eric, I'm so sorry." I was awake now when that pained tone reached my ears and I dropped the gun on the floor as I jumped up to go to the huddled figure gasping on the carpet in front of me. I kneeled down beside him and I wanted to cry because I felt so stupid. Of course it was only Eric, I should have realized that when he first spoke. I had always been able to tell it was him even when I was half asleep. But lately my nerves had been so on edge that I couldn't even hold on to the smallest things, like my husband's voice. I tried not to cringe when I heard the bullets working their way out of midsection and began rolling across the wood floor. "I was just waking up and I thought you were an intruder..."

"You shot me." He immediately said, looking down at his bare chest where I could see the bullet wounds starting to close as trails of blood ran down his pale skin. I was momentarily distracted by the sight of his half naked self. It had seemed like forever since I last saw him like this and I had to practically picked up my jaw to keep it from falling open any further. Eric's pained blue eyes turned dark when he looked at me. "...you shot me with silver bullets..."

"I know, I'm sorry..." I tried to apologize a second time, but Eric's sudden change in attitude cut off my voice as I found myself being yanked back to my feet and driven across the room where my back met a wall rather roughly. I barely had a second to even register what was happening before my vision was filled by Eric's face. His features were darkened, his expression angry and animalistic as he tightened his hands like steel on my upper arms while his fangs were bared. I should have been scared, I should have been fearing for my life right now. This was a new Eric and he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know to reign in his anger. But I wasn't afraid for one simple reason, he looked like his old self. It was strange how I could make that connection when I could possibly be hurt by him, but this was exactly how he looked when he got mad at me back before he had been cursed. He looked like the old Eric, the one who knew who he was. The expression hadn't been stolen by the witches and it caused such a wave of relief to go through me that I didn't even think to stop him when he pushed my head to the head and went for my neck.

I didn't know what to expect, as this would be the first time he fed on me since the curse and I wasn't sure how it was going to be. I was fairly certain that this new version of him was going to be rough, so when I felt his fangs brush against my skin I was prepared for the pain to come from it. But what happened next took me by surprise because his fangs pierced my skin when he nipped at the side of my neck right before I felt the familiar tug that said he was drinking my blood. And the thing that took me by surprise was that he did it so gently that it wasn't even painful at all. In fact, I was so surprised that I even began to enjoy it. Whenever Eric had fed on me in the past it had always been a source of arousal for the of us and had always happened right before or during sex and remember that made a sudden heat flood my body that hadn't happened in almost a week. Eric must have felt the sensation because he loosened his grips on my arms and dropped his hands to my side, still holding me in place. I heard a moan of pleasure escape from under his breath as he sucked at my neck and I even found myself reaching up to wrap my arms around him, feeling my own pleasure starting to take over as I held him close to me. I was just getting lost in this old moment, feeling the edge of what could happen when he suddenly pulled away from me. He stared at me for a second, his chin stained with my blood before he did something even more surprising. He leaned in and captured my lips with his, sealing us together for the first time in what seemed like forever.

I could have forgotten what was going on in our lives just for the simple fact that he was kissing me. It wasn't altered in any way, he was kissing me like he always had. That same flutter came over my stomach, my heart began to race when he let his hands roam over my body. I felt a familiar spread between my legs when he pressed against me as I started giving in to it. I touched him back as he was touching me, running my fingers over his cold bare chest, feeling his body under my skin and making a spasm of love ricochet around inside of me. It was so familiar, so exciting to be like this again. I almost allowed myself to be over taken by this moment, wanting nothing more then to just be with him as we always had been. But this wasn't how it always had been, this wasn't really my husband. And it was that fact that made me pull away and stop him.

"I'm sorry. I can't do this." I told him, shaking my head when I edged around him, needing to put space between us even though I wasn't entirely sure why I was stopping him. I just knew I couldn't go through with it. "It's not..."

_Ring...ring. _It was the doorbell, killing any remaining part of our intimate moment that I hadn't already done.

"Who the heck could that be?" I asked, glancing at Eric to find him slightly dazed and unstable on his feet from ingesting my blood and I knew he would be a handful tonight. But even Eric couldn't distract me enough from the figure that walked through my front door dressed in black and shocked me with her appearance, an appearance that made me wrinkle my nose in disgust. "Pam? Is that..."

"Yes! It's me." She shouted, not even allowing me to finish as she slammed the door shut in her anger and stomped towards us, ripping off the veil she had pushed back and threw it to the floor, further exposing her now what looked like rotting skin stretching across the left side of her face. She looked exactly what a rotting piece of animal flesh would look like on the side of the road. Her skin was peeling and appeared like it would fall off if she touched it. She looked so grotesque that it made my stomach rumble nervously like I was going to vomit as she glared at Eric and I. "Can you believe this! They fucked with my face. Now they are going to die!"

* * *

><p><em><span>45 minutes later<span>_

"Are you out of your God damn mind !"

I physically winced as I heard Bill bellow at Pam from across the room while I stood in between Eric and Sookie and watched this exchange with my arms crossed. It was bad just like I knew it would be when I picked up the phone and called Bill. How could it not be? Bill had specifically ordered all of us to stay out of it and Pam went ahead and confronted the witches on her own terms and now she had her own unique curse to deal with. Sookie and Bill had arrived in the same car but it was Bill who got into the house first while Sookie trailed behind looking apprehensive. She alone knew the real extent of her husband's temper and when Bill began yelling at Pam, she just stood back with Eric and me and watched. It was for the best if Bill got this all out now rather then prolong it. Because in the long run, we all needed to be on the same page in order to get this business with the witches under control and we could only do that when we were all standing united.

"He...is very angry." Eric whispered to me, starling me slightly with his closeness as he spoke. After our very intimate moment in the hallway, it felt awkward to be standing here surrounded by my family so soon after it happened."Should we be worried?"

"No, Bill is more bark then bite, well at least in the figurative terms." Sookie answered back, looking more then a little amused at the turn of the tides. The old Eric would never have asked such a question because he didn't fear any vampire's outburst. But this Eric looked nervous which was a far cry from what we expected of him. "He's just going to yell but I doubt it will be more then that."

"I told you and everyone else not to confront the necromancers and what do you go and do? You disobey my orders." Bill snapped, his hands practically frozen to his hips as he glared down at Pam and tried not to show his disgust at her appearance. "And now they have retaliated against you and your face is rotting away."

"Oh gee, thanks for pointing that out. I wasn't aware of that fact." Pam replied sarcastically, looking right back at Bill with not the slightest trace of fear. She had never been afraid of any vampire in authority, she was like Eric in that sense. But in this moment, her listening would have been more beneficial for her. And she wouldn't have her own curse to battle. Just another problem to put on top of the pile. "Look, I admit I shouldn't have gone against your orders. I know that now. But I was really pissed off..."

"I don't care how pissed off you are. I am your King and you will follow my decree. Or there will be consequences." Bill said in such a threatening way that even Pam went silent as he whipped around to face the rest of us for the first time. "That goes for the rest of you..."

"Do not threaten her!" Eric snapped viciously, jumping to my defense at the smallest sign of him needing to protect me before suddenly deflating at the look on Bill's face. "I mean that respectfully, my liege."

"It's not a threat, it's just a safety warning." Bill told us, but his eyes still said that his word was law, even for Sookie and me. "Has anyone else gone against my orders?"

"Uh, yea. I went to go see Marnie the other day." I cringed as soon as those words escaped my mouth because I knew how angry Bill would be even though I was family. But I didn't want to hold it back because the longer I did, them more trouble it would cause. So I just told him everything. "I went there because I was angry and I intended to yell at her. But then she gave me a reading and I heard Gran's voice in her head warning me. But it wasn't Marnie's name she was warning me about. It was about this witch named Antonia. And then Gran told me to get out of there and I did..."

"Well, I'm glad that you found out a little about this spirit possessing her..." Bill began, surprising me with his tone and words which I was not expecting when I made my confession. "But I'm not glad that you went there. You could have been hurt or captured..."

"I know, I realized what could have happened and how lucky I was that I was able to get out of there. And I won't do it again." I nodded, knowing I truly wouldn't go back there unless I had to and I certainly wouldn't do it without Bill's blessing. "But at least we know she's possessed and that gives us a little more to go off of."

"Yes, that's true. But for now, no one else is to interfere. We can't afford to rock the boat right now." Bill set this warning out to all of us, giving Pam and me an extra glare since we had both not listened to him before. "I will investigate this further but no one is doing anything against these necromancer until I give the order. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir." Pam replied sarcastically for all of us before turning to face the mirror on the wall and wailed. "Jesus Christ my face! Those bitches are going to die for fucking with my face."

* * *

><p><em><span>20 minutes later<span>_

She had only been walking through the dark trees for a few minutes when she ran into the vampire and had her entire existence get turned upside down. But her mind was so cluttered with other things that she never even saw it coming until it was too late.

Helen walked alone tonight, not in the mood for any kind of company which was why she had told Gabriel to go off and do his own thing. He hadn't questioned it as he already knew the reason why she needed time to herself and he went out, leaving her alone with her own thoughts. She moved virtually silent through the woods, not meeting anything on her journey as she tried to work through the chaos in her head. It was so stretched out along the spectrum that it had taken her a few nights to even pinpoint it to separate issues and to the most pressing matter of them all and it wasn't even the crisis with the witches. As usual, her issues with Louie were still prominent and they would continue to be until she got up the nerve to confront them. But she knew that wouldn't happen for a while. Or at least until the chaos from this problem with the necromancers died down. And even then, she wasn't entirely sure they could solve the tension between them. It was so much more then just the act of sex between them. It was the thousand of years they had spent apart that was also the problem. They had yet to bridge the gap that had been left from her absence despite him now knowing everything she had told Godric. She didn't want to face him and risk hearing that he could never look at her the same way again after knowing about all the horrible things she use to do. So she avoided him and avoided talking about him as much as she could. But even she knew she couldn't run forever. She had tried that once before and it had only proved to be the worse mistake ever when she finally came out of hiding...

It was just as this thought was passing through her head when she coincidentally crossed paths with another vampire in the woods and nearly collided with him.

"Oh fuck I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Helen immediately said when she locked eyes with the taller vamp even though she didn't have to. He was a vampire and even though she was clearly the elder of the two, there wasn't much she could do to hurt him when she was only going at a human pace. But still, as she looked at the young handsome face with it's warm brown eyes and sandy blonde hair, she still felt the need to apologize. "Forgive me, tonight is just not a good night to cross paths with me. I have a lot on my mind."

"No worries, I'm perfectly fine." The vamp replied with a goodhearted smile that somehow seemed familiar as he flexed his limbs in mock showing as a human would do to prove no broken bones. When he stood still again, his height towering over her, he spoke again. "No need to apologize...Helen."

"How the hell do you know my name?" Helen demanded, instinctively stepping back at the notion of a vampire knowing her name when she had never met him before. "I don't recall ever meeting you."

"Well you wouldn't now would you? I have changed quite a lot since the last time we saw each other." He replied cryptically, his eyes looking over her like he had known her for a very long time. His expression showed that he believed it but she didn't. She had stayed away from the vampire community as much as she could over her lifetime and only interacted with them when she had to. The same went with the human population. So she would remember the ones she did meet and left alive. And she couldn't place this one's face. "You may not recognize me, but we do know each other."

"I think you're mistaken." She retorted, frowning heavily as she backed away even though he made no move towards her. "I've never met you before. I would remember you if I had."

"I told you I have changed since we saw each other and I thought you would be able to tell who I was right off the bat but I guess I slipped your mind." The male continued to push the subject, looking almost hurt by her ignorance of who he was. But then he crossed his arms, a look of determination on his face. "Obviously we know each other, if we didn't then how would I know the name of your progeny Gabriel as well as your friend Allison."

"What the fuck?" She exclaimed, even more taken aback then before. It was one thing for him to know her name, but to know her progeny and Allison was another thing entirely. It made something click inside her head and her eyes snapped up to his face with realization. "You're that vampire they both met aren't you? The one named Alec...how in the hell do you know so much about me and them."

"Oh come on, I know you know who I am." The vampire she now knew was Alec said with a smirk as he stared at her intently. It unnerved her, even being a vampire, that he was looking at her so hard like he was so sure they had a connection. "You know me Helen. You just need to look more closely."

"Ok, fine. I'll look but I don't know what you expect me to see." Helen grumbled, feeling her patience wearing thin as she stood there and looked over the male vampire as studiously as she could. She saw nothing at all about him stand out to her to clue her in to whatever connection they shared. Beside his name, which irked her because it reminded her of her younger brother, there was nothing there. Oh wait, that was a lie. It was actually his eyes that startled her, moving her to stand back with another frown. "Ok, you do look kind of familiar but I'm sure I've never met you."

"Look in my eyes again for a minute..." Alec replied, moving forward and placing his hands on her shoulders so quickly that she didn't respond. Once again, there was something familiar about his eyes. "Look at me and then you'll understand."

So she did. She stood there in that tiny clearing with barely an arm's length of space between and looked at his face. She wanted to keep denying that she knew him but once she saw there was a familiar look to his eyes, she couldn't protest his presence. She still didn't entirely understand why she suddenly thought she was drawn to him but she couldn't deny that she was. Maybe it was because he shared her late brother's name and that was messing with her head. But then, as soon as that passed through her head, she was hit with an overwhelming wave of realization that was stronger then anything she had felt in the past thousand years. Her eyes really focused on Alec's face and found him smiling triumphantly like he knew exactly what she had just thought. And it took all she had not to reach out and grab him like her body was telling him to. She just couldn't fathom how this was possible.

"You know who I am now don't you?" Alec asked, speaking before she could open her mouth just as he dropped his hands from her shoulders and cocked his head to the side. "Just say it. You know I'm your brother."

"Yea, I do know." Helen couldn't even choke back the blood that suddenly spilled from her eyes as soon as she acknowledged what was in front of her. She wanted to push back from this unknown territory and shy away from yet another secret from the past. But she couldn't. Not when she was lucky enough to have back something she was certain was gone forever. "Alec, you're alive."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back at the house<span>_

I slipped away from the others to go upstairs to my bedroom to get some privacy to make a phone call. After Bill had finished giving both Pam and I the worse talking to of both our lives, we had been joined by Godric and Louie and surprisingly even Gabriel. But no Helen, which was odd since Gabriel was rarely seen without her. But he said she needed time by herself and she would probably show up at some point later on. So I let that go as the discussion fell back to what it was before the others had gotten here and that was the curse situation with Eric and now Pam. Bill had assured us that we would take action, but from what I could get from it, he was more interested in talking it out then doing anything. And Eric was down there looking lost as usual and it was what drove me up here to grab my cell phone to make this call in the first place.

"Hello Allison." Molly's cheerful voice filled the other end of the line after I had dialed her number. She sounded so happy that I hated to have to ruin it with bad news but I had no choice. I had called her because I was sure she could help me. "I haven't heard from you in a while."

"Yea, sorry about that. Things have just been eventful out here. Eric and I just got back from vacation a few days ago." I said, trying not to groan as I remembered that I hadn't told her about Eric and I getting married. But that piece of news would have to wait. There were more pressing matters to think about. "Um, I don't want to worry you. But I kind of called for a serious reason."

"Oh no, that's never a good thing for a mother to hear." Molly's groan echoed my own as she picked up on the sense of doom that had been hanging over me for almost a week now. I heard some shuffling around on her end before she asked. "What's wrong now?"

"There's a new group of necromancers in Shreveport and Eric went to investigate them a few nights ago to see if they were a threat and they ended up cursing him." I explained, leaving out the part where I too had gone after the leader only to run off before I could get much out of it. "They erased his memories. He has no idea who he is or who any of us are."

"Oh boy, that is not good at all." Molly sounded like she had slammed her palm on a hard surface out of anger. "This group must be really powerful if they were able to do that good a number on him."

"They certainly did, he's been wondering around like some little lost boy. I've had to re-explain everything and everybody to him just so he can function. But he's just not there like he was before. He's too...nice." I frowned at the way I said it, like I thought Eric being sweet was a bad thing. And it wasn't, but it was also not his usual behavior and it just further reminded me that this was not my husband I was around now. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "Anyway...I was just calling to see if there was anything you could do. Like maybe breaking the curse?"

"Oh Allison, you think I can do that just because I'm a witch?" Molly sounded slightly proud like she was happy that I had thought of her in that capacity. But her tone then changed. "I hate to break this to you, but I can't help. At least not in the way you want me to. The curse you just described to me, I think has to be broken by the witch who cast it. I won't be able to do anything."

"Damn it, that really sucks." I moaned, hating that my hopes had been deflated. I had been counting on her to be able to fix this and now I found out she couldn't and if possible, I felt worse then I did before. "But can you still come over tonight anyway? Everyone else is here and it would be great if you could be here too."

"Of course I'll come. Susan's with her dad for the night and I have some things to finish up here. But then I can be right over." She assured me, at least her presence would hopefully give me a lift I so desperately needed. "I'll help in any way I can, but I don't know how much I can do."

"Your presence is enough for now." I told her before hanging up and tossing the phone back on my nightstand. I ran my hands through my hair, wincing as they caught tangles before my fingers went through. I barely had a second to let my mind wander before I heard the door open and saw that a tall figure had entered the room and I quickly plastered a smile on my face. "Hey Eric."

"I just wanted to check on you." He said, walking into the room towards me with his hands in his pockets and a slightly unsteady look in his eyes that I knew was from the blood he had taken from me. But he remained a respectable distance away which was more comfortable for me after our encounter from earlier. "Are you alright?"

"I will be...eventually." I said, more for his benefit then mine as I stood up and nodded to the door. "We should go back and join the others."

Eric only nodded and followed after me like the lost puppy he now was.

* * *

><p><em><span>30 minutes later<span>_

"What the fuck is going on here? Why would you bring him here?" Gabriel's voice snapped at her half an hour later as Helen stood in the doorway of Eric and Allie's house with Alec by her side and 8 pairs of eyes on the two of them, all of which held the same expression. Disbelief.

Helen had a feeling this would be the reaction she would get when she showed up here with her brother by her side, but it wasn't nearly as big a reaction as she would have gotten had they all had the same information as she did. They had told her their suspicions and Gabriel and Allison had met him, but they didn't know they had been right. They didn't know this was her brother, her own flesh and blood that she thought had been lost forever. Godric and Louie certainly wouldn't know this as they had been like her, their last memory of Alec being when he was only a child. They wouldn't recognize this tall, strong looking vampire at her side as her brother. But it was him. She knew it as soon as she allowed her doubt to slide away and she knew they would believe it too. Once they got over their shock that is. This would be a lot to take in and she didn't even know the whole story. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that she had her little brother back, only he wasn't so little anymore. He was a vampire and more importantly, he had been a man when he was turned. But if she looked closely, then she could see traces of his old self in his now mature face...

"Helen, what is going on?" Allison was the first of the group to speak, gaining her attention before her eyes shot to Alec suspiciously. "And more importantly, what is he doing here in my house? I thought we all agreed it was just coincidence that he knew us."

"No, it wasn't coincidence. And I was wrong the other night about the possibility of the stranger you met being my brother. You guys were right, about all of it..." Helen looked up at the faces staring mostly at her. Alec just stood there on the outside porch as he hadn't been invited in yet and stared back at everyone else with a smug look on his face but he didn't speak. He wouldn't have to just yet. She would take care of it. She nodded behind her to him and said quietly. "This isn't just some vampire who shares my brother's name, it's actually my brother. My real brother..."

"It can't be. There's just no way it's true." Louie frowned, unwilling to even entertain the idea of this being the truth. And she could understand why. Out of the pair of them, Louie had been the one to spend the most time with her family and he had know Alec when he was younger. And as far as she knew, when she pretended to be dead, that was the last time Louie set eyes on him as well. So if anyone would be hard to convince, it would be him. And his expression said it. "You said your family all died out. And you were very clear that there was no way Alec could have been turned. And I'm sorry, but this is not your brother..."

"You may not see it and you may not remember me, but I certainly remember you...Louie." Alec directly spoke to him, starling the older vampire which was not an easy feat to accomplish but he achieved it even more by what he said next. "You were there when Helen and I were attacked by a werewolf. You were the one who saved me by giving me your blood. I remember it like it was yesterday."

"Oh shit, you're not kidding." Louie retorted, his blue green eyes going wide and any frustration he had towards her was gone as he turned to focus his gaze on her. "How...how did this..."

"How did this happen? I thought you might eventually ask, but I figured it was best to wait until everyone was together before I told my life story. I don't like repeating myself." Alec told the group, shooting everyone the same triumphant smile before he picked Allison out of the group and addressed her. "If you would invite me inside, then I can get to it."

"Don't make me regret this." The young brunette said through clenched teeth, obviously her mood was already soured far before they had shown up but he shoulders sank as she said. "Alec, please come in."

"You sound so thrilled." He said smartly, before stepping through the doorway into the house, crossing his arms tightly before looking around with a smile. "Nice place."

"Yea thanks." Allison answered back with no hint of a smile on her lips. She stared at him suspiciously like this was the first time she had laid eyes on him. "You said you were going to tell us your back story. So tell it. Leave nothing out, because in this group, the truth eventually comes out in full. So you might as well do it now."

"Thanks for the warning." Alec held back from rolling his eyes, something she could sense which kind of took her by surprise when he turned to look down at her. "I guess I should just start back when you last saw me. That's where this all really began."

"Yes, start there." Helen urged him, not sure what she was going to hear going that far back.

"Alright, the last time you saw me, I was 7 years old. I was only a kid when our parents told me about your death. I watched the fire on that hill from the doorway of our home, the fire that was supposed to be burning your body. It was after all the story that they told the village and wanted everyone to believe, including me. But I didn't believe it. Not because I heard anything in their thoughts, it was just a feeling that burned inside of me like those flames. I just never quite believed you were dead, something told that wasn't the case, that you were still alive and for some reason our parents sent you away. It wasn't until weeks later that I realized why they would have done that. They wouldn't have lied about your death unless you had become the very thing they didn't want you to be..."

"A vampire." Helen finished for him, remembering those looks on her parents faces when they saw what she had turned into. It was looks of disgust and fear, emotions that they could never get passed or get over even though she was still their daughter. She looked at Alec. "You just had a feeling that's what happened?"

"You're my older sister, you watched over me and protected me my whole life until you left it. I would have known if you were really dead. And I did not for once second think you were. They pushed you out and made you leave. I was sure of it." Alec's eyes blazed with the fire of his anger, anger that she was quite certain he had carried around with him his entire human and vampire life. It was right there calling out to her and it was astonishing that he had come to that conclusion at such a young age. "You weren't dead and I was going to prove it. So I waited, I waited 15 years until I was 22. And then I left the village and headed into the wild. I came across a sympathetic female vampire, who eventually became my maker. She turned me when she heard my story and took pity on me. After I was turned, she released me so I could search for you."

"And that's what you have been doing for...the past 978 years.." Helen concluded after adding up the years from his age of turning to the present. Almost a thousand years he had spent looking for her, his entire vampire existence had been spent focused on her. She stared at him intently. "You were looking for me this whole time?"

"Nine hundred and seventy eight years. Village after village, town after town, country after country. I looked and never found anything. You were always good at hiding when you wanted, so I knew I would have to try harder. And now, after nearly a thousand years, my efforts have finally paid off." Alec explained with a goofy looking smile that was very reminiscent of child like expressions. If there was anything that could make Helen feel human again, it was that look. It was seeing her little brother all grown up, barely recognizable as a powerful vampire standing in front of her. He placed his hands on her shoulders like he had earlier. "I knew you were out there, deep down I always knew. I just had to find you."

"And find me you did. I'm just sorry it took so long." Helen closed her eyes from the sudden wave of guilt that hit her. If she hadn't been so afraid of her past catching up to her, then she would have gone back and she would have been with her brother when he was turned. She wouldn't have wasted a thousand years like she did with Louie and Godric. This was once again a prime example of how her mistakes were going to have a hold on her future. "I could stake myself for ruining even more lives..."

"What did you ruin?" An older voice asked from the still open front doorway behind them, breaking them all from their huddled little cloud to turn and look at the new figure who had joined them. Molly stood in the doorway looking around at all the vampires with a frown, her expression never changing until her eyes landed on one of them in particular and she gasped. "Alec!"

"Molly." Alec's eyes could have bugged out of of his head right then and there but he maintained his composure as he stared right back at her. "What are you doing here?"

"I asked her to come here. I called her earlier." Allison spoke up from the back of their group, edging around the others to come forward with a frown. "How do you know her?"

"I might have forgotten to mention this, but I've known Alec for about a year now. We met before the trouble with the Dallas coven began and we became connected when we made a deal..." Molly began to explain, seeing that she was caught and there was no way out of it. "He was the one who pushed me to go after the coven as long as I promised to tell him when Helen finally showed up."

* * *

><p><em><span>15 minutes later<span>_

"I just cannot believe what I'm hearing." I said out loud when Molly finished speaking and allowed me a chance to respond to it for the first time. I wasn't quite able to get out what I was thinking right off the bat because I was still shocked, as were the rest of us. It was hard not to be, especially after we just found out even more intertwined our lives had been without us knowing. I never would have thought that Alec, Helen's vampire brother that we just found out about less then an hour before, was the one who had put in motion the events that lead Molly's life to intersect with mine when it came to the Dallas coven. I always wondered how exactly she was able to just join them at the right time to try and take them down. And now I find out that it was Alec who had known all along that they would come after me. Apparently, he had been watching Godric and saw that he and I were friends that would eventually come to include Louie and once that happened, he figured it was only a matter of time before Helen showed herself. He was sure she was watching them too and it wouldn't be long until she came out of hiding. So in exchange for telling Molly that the witches were targeting me, she had agreed to let him know when Helen showed up. A deal she was sure she would never have to fulfill until the night Helen showed up to save me from Mark. A night that set all of this in motion. And now, as I was sitting here amongst my family and friends, I struggled to make sense of it still. I looked up at molly sitting across from me in the living room and asked. "Why didn't you tell me this when you first showed up here?"

"Because I honestly didn't think I would have to. I didn't really know anything about Helen at that point and I was more focused on getting things settled with you." Molly explained, sitting back against the cushions with her fingers running through her shoulder length hair. "And after everything that has happened, I didn't think it would have to come out that he and I had this little bit of history together. I thought it would just go unnoticed."

"And you!" I turned my attention to Alec, who was standing with his sister next to the wall opposite from me. But when I rose my voice at him, he turned to face me curiously. "Why didn't you say anything that night we met? You knew that I knew Helen and you made it obvious that you knew her too. Why didn't you just say something to me then? If I had known you were her brother then I would have..."

"You wouldn't have believed me even if I did tell you." Alec protested, his eyes set on my face with a steady gaze. "And besides, I didn't want you to lead me to my sister. I wanted to do it for myself."

"You...are so damn stubborn." I rolled my eyes, seeing it in his face that he very obviously shirked the easy road in favor of doing it on his own. And I didn't like that. If he had just told me then, then all this surprise could have been avoided when so many other things were going on. I did not like being shocked like this. "You are just like her when it comes to avoiding confrontation."

"Well thank you, I take that as a compliment." Alec smirked proudly, looking more youthful then he already was as he stood there with Helen and it was only when I saw them side by side that I could see the bond between them as well how they looked alike. "And I'm not stubborn, not really. I just did things the vampire way."

"Fuck the vampire way." I snapped,not wanting to deal with this explanation as I rubbed my temples with my fingertips, trying to make the ache go away. "I'm so damn tired of vampires popping up in my life with some damn tie to me or my past or someone close to me. Let this be the end of it."

"She was not this...cheerful the night I met her." Alec said very coherently to Helen, making it clear he meant it to be overheard by me. He sent me a playful smile before saying. "Look, now that I'm out in the open and you all know my story, perhaps I can be of some service. I understand you are having a problem with a witch of sorts..."

"You know about Antonia?" I asked, sitting up straight with a frown just as Godric walked into the room without me even realizing he had been gone. "How do you know her?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt this conversation, but I need to make a point." Godric cut in, holding up his hand to make us all fall silent and turn to him. It was then that I saw there was a worried expression on his face that I hadn't noticed when he walked in. "But has anyone seen Eric in the last half hour?"

"Sure we have, he's right..." I began to say, looking around for my confused husband but I found that I could not spot him in the crowded room. I frowned, I had been so engrossed in what was going on with Molly and Alec's history that I hadn't noticed Eric slipping away and it occurred to me that he had been gone this entire time. I stood up from the couch, facing my best friend. "He's probably in the house somewhere. Did you look?"

"I looked everywhere, every room while you all were talking and I didn't find him anywhere. Not even in his rest area, even though dawn is approaching." Godric paused, scratching the back of his head before looking at me again and only me. He knew that Eric had had my blood tonight, but he hadn't said it out loud. But I knew he knew because his thoughts had practically been conversing with me when he walked in here. And if he was thinking about Eric having my blood in his system, then I could almost see where he was going with this. "He's not in the house and I didn't even hear him leave. But he must have because he's not here."

"Uh, this is not good." I said quietly, biting my lip. If Eric had suddenly left without giving notice and he had my blood in his system then this was bad. My blood was powerful, it changed the way vampires acted, case in point the incident with Godric. And Eric was already confused enough due to the curse, add my blood in to the equation and it was a recipe for disaster. Especially with the sun coming up soon, he may be so antsy from the blood that he may not take shelter right away. I looked worriedly at Godric. "We need to find him...pronto."


	9. Come find me

**Chapter 9 Come find me**

_The next morning_

"Well we're certainly fucked now." I growled out loud to my cousin as I stomped back up stairs to the main floor from the basement and kicked the door shut behind me just as the first rays of the day began drifting into the hallway. "It's dawn, the other vampires are down there for the day, and we still haven't found Eric. We're completely and utterly fucked!"

It was hard to maintain my composure right at the moment when there was so much to be worried about. After we had realized Eric had slipped out of the house and was wandering around with my blood in his system, we had all gone out to search for him. We couldn't trust that he would come back on his own or seek shelter once day came because we all knew what Faerie blood did to a vampire. And mine was the best thing around and it would mess with his mind. So we had to find him before he did damage to himself or someone else. But what we failed to take into account was how close dawn was and we had barely been searching for half an hour before the others were forced to come back to the house and go to rest in the basement without Eric. Godric had tried summoning him, but with the curse on Eric, it somehow blocked any authority Godric had of getting him here. And the vampires couldn't stay outside any more or they would risk burning themselves. So they had no choice but to follow Sookie and I back here and go down to the light tight room until night fall. I didn't want to agree with this, I didn't want to come home without Eric but unless I wanted to watch everyone burn then I had no say. Sookie was staying with me for the day, saying she would keep on helping me look for Eric. We both knew it was highly unlikely that Eric was in the ground for the day, he was already confused enough and with my intoxicating blood added to that, it meant possible disaster. And Sookie knew this as well as anyone.

"Allie, you need to relax. We're going to find him. The sun isn't completely up yet." Sookie tried to assure me, resting her hands on my shoulders in attempt to comfort me. "We'll bring him back, but you need to calm down."

"Don't tell me to fucking calm down." I shot back, pushing her hands off of me as I moved away down the hall towards the living room. I was so frenzied and maniac that I stomped my feet the entire way and had there been other humans in the house, they would have woken up by the sound I was making. I reached the middle of the carpet before I had enough composure before I could turn around and face her. "It's easy for you to say it will be ok. It's not your husband out there wandering around in the sun."

"You're right, Bill's not the one out there. But Eric is my family now that you guys are married, so I have to care about what happens to him..." Sookie retorted, holding her calm expression as she stood in front of me with her arms crossed. "And when I say it will be ok, I mean it."

"We can't find him Sookie! Even with Godric summoning him, he didn't show up. How the hell is it going to be ok?" I demanded, knowing she didn't deserve the tone I was using on her but I just couldn't seem to reign it in. It was bad enough that Eric was cursed and had no memory of me, but now it was madness that he was out in the day light with my blood running through his veins and could possibly be dying somewhere. Something had to be done before I went insane. "This is going to end so badly, if we don't get a hold of him soon, he's going to..."

"Allison, get a hold of yourself already." Sookie snapped, reaching out through the air and sent a quickly slap across my face that instantly shut me up before she grabbed me with both hands and shook me. "If you would just be quiet for one damn second, then I could tell you I have a plan. Are you calm now?"

"Yes, thanks for that." I rolled my jaw, feeling the sting from her slap before setting my eyes on her face. "OK, tell me your oh so brilliant plan."

"It's simple, I'll call Alcide." She said with a triumphant smile like I was suppose to know what she meant by that. "You know, Alcide..."

"I never met him. Remember?" I gave my cousin a look when the mention of the werewolf came into the conversation. I knew about him of course from what Sookie had told me. But I had never actually met him before. "So no I don't know. How is he suppose to help?"

"He's a werewolf Allie. If he can pick up Eric's scent, he can lead us right to him." She explained, looking at me sympathetically because I knew she could tell how distraught I was right now. She stepped towards me. "We're on our own for the day until the vampires can get up again. But if I call Alcide, then at least we have a better chance of finding Eric and making sure he's alright."

"OK, I'm sorry. You're right, having a third person would make it easier." I shook my head, trying to clear away the frustration my worries had instilled in me. It wasn't that I didn't want help finding Eric, but it was more the type of help Sookie wanted to bring in. I wasn't too keen on the idea of being in the company of a werewolf. Not when I had fought against one and killed it during the height of the chaos with the Dallas coven. But Sookie was the most level headed person I knew. And if she said this guy was going to help, then I had to trust her judgment. After all, she had only said good things about him in the past. I looked at her and nodded. "Ok, go call him. And make sure he gets his ass here soon."

"Oh he will love hearing that." Sookie said with a smirk before she turned and rushed off to make the call.

* * *

><p><em><span>1 hour later<span>_

"Allie, come downstairs. Alcide's here." I heard Sookie yell up to me from the first floor 60 minutes later and I turned away from tying my shoes to look towards the open bedroom door where I could hear her talking to him and while I couldn't decipher his response, I could make out the deep rumble of his voice. He sounded strong, and determined. It was only a matter of seconds before I could tell whether we would get along or not.

"I'll be right there." I called back, tying a double knot in my laces before standing up and tightening my ponytail. I needed to make sure I was dressed appropriately before I went downstairs because who knew how long it would take to locate Eric. It could happen right away or it could not and there was also no telling where this search would lead us. So I dressed for what seemed the most likely, a trip through the woods. And as the weather was still chilly, I made sure to have a long sleeved top on and the most durable shoes I had as I had a feeling there would be plenty of walking and running around. Finally I sighed, pushing a stray strand of hair behind my ear before I left the room and headed for the staircase.

I was about halfway down before I looked up to where my cousin was standing and laid eyes on Alcide's tall form for the first time. I was almost taken aback because I wasn't expecting him to be so tall and muscular. Or good looking. It seemed like as a woman, that's what we tended to zero in on first and foremost. But it was hard not to. He had a body and face to die for and that messy dark hair just seemed to make him more rugged and handsome then he already was. I may be married, but I wasn't immune to the attractiveness of other people. Case in point, Louie and Alec. So I was able to easily push that aside as I reached the floor and headed over to them. Alcide's eyes immediately shot over to my face and I could see them widening like I wasn't quite what he was expecting to see.

"Allie, this is Alcide." Sookie cut in to say as she too saw the look on his face and probably thought it was best to make the introductions right away. But even as she spoke, I saw what I was certain was a hopeful smile on her face. "Alcide, this is my cousin Allison."

"Wow.." Alcide blurted out before catching himself right away and he began to shake his head with a frown and extended his hand. "I mean...Nice to meet you."

"Yea, same to you." I accept his large hand for a shake and tried to hide my surprise at feeling the warmth of a supernatural being's skin instead of the coldness that belonged to the vampires. It's what I was use to, so when I didn't feel that with him, it threw me for a second and I didn't immediately drop his hand. I could see Sookie's lips starting to twitch upwards and that was what made me finally let go and step back feeling almost embarrassed. " Why are you looking at me like that for?"

"Oh nothing..." She replied, glancing at Alcide who was studying me intently with his dark eyes before turning to look back at me with a shrug. "I just can't believe this is the first time you guys are meeting. That's all."

"I can't believe it either..." Alcide stated, looking between us like he was certain he was about to get involved in more trouble now that he knew both of us. I knew from Sookie that he had been dragged into the vampire business that didn't involve him because of Eric and I had no idea what he was thinking about helping us now that Eric was missing. But obviously he didn't put up a fight since he was here. And he must have sensed what I was thinking because he said. "But I'm happy to be of service in whatever way I can."

"We'll see how much help you'll be. If we end up finding Eric, then I will thank you." I told him, not liking that I sounded sort of rude in front of this stranger, but I had more pressing matters to worry about other then my manners. "I assume Sookie told you what happened.."

"You assume correct. I pretty much know the whole story, which doesn't surprise me. Trouble must run in your family.." Alcide said teasingly, directing the comment at me with playful eyes that completely underscored the seriousness of the situation. But I could tell he was only trying to lighten the mood, as Sookie had described what a nice guy he was. "And when a Stackhouse is in trouble, I have no choice but to come running..."

_"Holy shit, Sookie never mentioned how beautiful her cousin was. Jesus Christ, how is it possible that I never met her before? She is fucking gorgeous..."_ I heard this thought rolling through Alcide's brain even as he tried to keep a straight face on like he wasn't thinking about how attractive I was. He must have forgotten that I was also a Faerie, as I knew Sookie had told him. And hearing this private thought, although complimentary to me, it still made me blush and shift uncomfortably from foot to foot. But Sookie, was never one to shy away from saying what was on her mind.

"Alcide, now's not the time for that. We have to find Eric before he burns to a crisp." Sookie exclaimed, showing that she too had heard this thought and immediately rolled her eyes while Alcide finally remembered our abilities and looked like he wanted to run out the door. But he did a good job at hiding it again as my cousin went on. "Besides, she's married to Eric. Don't go flirting with his wife."

"Well it's a good thing he can't remember anything then." Alcide responded with an even tone, sending a slight wink at me that made me blush and told me he wasn't as embarrassed about his thoughts being overheard as I previously thought. He looked out the door into the early morning before he began pulling his red flannel shirt out from the top of his jeans and looking at us with a frown. "Um, you two might want to turn around or you're going to have quite a show."

"Oh right..." I sputtered, immediately turning on my heels, watching as Sookie did the same and I did my best not to look at her or else I would start giggling. It would be hard enough to maintain a straight face knowing there was an insanely good looking man taking his clothes off behind us right before he was about to turn into a wolf. But we both managed it, hearing him toss his clothes and boots off to the side before there was just a gust of wind dropping and when we turned around, there was this dark eyed brownish wolf standing there staring up at us, looking very much like the animal it was that I almost forgot that he started out as a man originally. I shook my head and got down on my knees to lean my head towards him. I knew my hair would have traces of Eric still there, as he and I had shared such an intimate encounter only last night. "My hair is where his scent is the strongest. You should be able to pick it up there."

I saw the wolf blink up at me before stepping forward and stretching out his neck so his nose was almost touching my hair. I tried not to flinch at having a wolf this close to me, my last encounter with one ending painfully but left me alive and still did nothing to curb my slight fear of them. Alcide seemed to pick up my apprehension more in wolf form, because after he took a deep breath he stepped back and shot out the door and stopped in the yard and looked back at us. Sookie went out first and I came after her, slamming the door shut before we both took off after him. I only prayed that he could find Eric before it was too late.

* * *

><p><em><span>20 minutes later<span>_

"Sookie this is getting to be hopeless." I practically wailed to my cousin as we trudged further into the woods after Alcide like we had been doing for almost the last half hour and the longer we went on, the more it felt like any hope was dwindling away. Despite the chill in the air, running after the wolf was starting to work up quite a sweat and my breathing was getting heavy. But that I could have dealt with if I knew we were getting closer to finding my husband and I just didn't think we were. I saw Sookie slowing down to a walk, so I did the same. "The sun is getting stronger, if Eric hasn't already burned to death then he is well on his way."

"Calm down, it's not even 8 in the morning and he's had a lot of your blood, it will protect him for a while until we track him down." Sookie said, obviously not worried about it judging by her tone and expression. And despite her comment that Eric was her family too, he wasn't her husband and she had hated him most of the time we were together. We kept Alcide in our line of vision as we talked. "Alcide will find him, he's very good about picking up scents."

"He didn't really seem to like the idea of tracking down a vampire, especially not Eric." I pointed out, remembering the look on Alcide's face when Sookie mentioned me being Eric's wife. For just the tiniest of seconds he didn't seem happy. "I just hope he actually he does what he says he will..."

Suddenly, Alcide came to a stop just ahead of of us and sent a growl in our direction, clearly a signal to follow him fast again. So we did. He took off running and we did too. He seemed to know exactly where he intended to go so Sookie and I didn't slow down again and just pushed on through the trees and over the uneven ground. More then one time, Sookie or me nearly tripped over something but managed to regain our footing just in time to round a corner of trees after Alcide before coming to a stop at the top of a little incline that lead to a small lake. And there, much to my surprise, out in the middle of the water was my husband splashing around as if he were merely human. He was perfectly ok, not burning at all and seeming like he was having an absolutely ball swimming out there in the sun light. However, once he spotted me standing there on the bank, he stood up in the murky water and called out to me.

"My beautiful wife has finally found me. Now the fun can really begin.." He shouted happily, spreading his arms out wide before falling backwards into the water and disappearing beneath the surface. When he came back up, there was the most childish grin on his face as he beckoned to me. "Come join me, it's wonderful in here."

"Uh I don't think so. There's like alligators and snakes in those waters you idiot." I was trying hard not to laugh but it was next to impossible when Eric was splashing around out there like some big kid. Not to mention I almost forgot that Eric was a vampire, right now he seemed nothing more then a grown man or at least more normal then he already was. I had to shake my head before stepping closer. "Eric get out of there right now!"

"I don't have to listen to you. You're not my mother. Or my father." He retorted, a chuckle slipping from deep inside of him as he floated on his back and kicked the water up in the air. "You're not even my maker."

"I'm your wife damn it!" I snapped, any trace of amusement leaving me as I stared at him. The blood really did do a number on him as he didn't think there was any danger of him being out in the sun. I looked at Sookie who was watching him as curiously as I was and I said. "He's really lost it."

"You're damn right he has." She shook her head trying not to laugh as well but she didn't hide it as well as I did. "Eric will you get your viking ass out of that lake before you burn to a crisp like a piece of chicken."

"Nope, I don't think I will. I like the sun too much and it likes me." He answered back with a kick of his legs, propelling him through the water slowly. "I think I will stay out here. Nothing can hurt me. I am a God of the sea!"

"Jesus Christ, he really has lost it." Alcide's voice joined us a second later, signifying that he was now back in human form and that meant he was standing there with us without any clothes on. Sookie caught my eye and we both made sure to keep our eyes straight ahead or on his face to avoid seeing something we weren't allowed to see being that we were married. Alcide seemed to have no inhibitions about standing outside in the daylight fully nude as he just looked at Eric and said. "You weren't kidding, were you? He really doesn't have any idea who he is..."

"Get away from her!" Eric's voice suddenly turned dark when he seemed to catch sight of me standing beside a now human Alcide and he looked more then just a little territorial. He slammed his fist into the water, creating a splash that almost reached the banks. "Leave, you're not wanted here."

"Bullshit, she wants me here." Alcide shouted back, even though it was Sookie who asked him to come over. But that was besides the point as he sent a glare equally as dark back at my husband. "Now get out of the water you dumb fanger before go up in flames."

"I'm going to kill you." Eric sneered, lowering his head like bull ready to stampede but he seemed unwilling to leave the water just yet. "Get out of here."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Do you want to die?"

"I would love to see you try."

"Both of you just calm the fuck down." Sookie snapped, stepping forward into the fray and holding up both her hands to them so they couldn't try to one up the other in terms of threats. Alcide was breathing heavily beside me, obviously not content in letting go of his anger which only seemed to annoy Sookie. "Alcide, for God Sakes, stop making that noise."

"I'm just doing what I came here to do, even though I would love to watch that asshole burn." Alcide said with no remorse for his words even though they stung me deeply. "Get out. Now"

"Not a chance you filthy dog. No dirty wolf tells me what to..." Eric's voice, which had started off strong and full of rage suddenly dropped away to a near silence and a closer look told me why. It hadn't happened yet because there was so much of my blood in his system, but now it appeared my blood had dried up as there were small curls of smoke starting to rise from Eric's skin. I watched as blotches of redness appeared across his pale chest, looking as painful as a fire burn as he hunched over, feeling the effects of it before his eyes looked up at me. "My wife, I don't feel so good..."

"This is why we've been begging you to get out of there sooner." I told him, waving my hands at him to come towards me and to my relief, he finally did it, coming under the shelter of the trees overhead but still burning rapidly. "Eric, you need to go back to the house..."

"Allison I hurt..." He gasped, the smoke rising even more quickly from his skin as he stood there with his arms hanging down at his sides and looking up at me with lost eyes. "Help me."

"I will help you. I promise. But first you need to get back to the house where it's safe." I explained, fighting the urge to reach out and touch him. I knew if I did then I would risk getting burned myself so I simply stood back and nodded towards the path. "Go ahead, I'll be right behind you."

I watched Eric barely nod in response before he suddenly flashed away and left me alone with Sookie and Alcide. Sookie and I stared at each other before we started out after my burning husband. Alcide shifted back to his wolf form because we saw him rush passed us to lead the way back home. And this time I never slowed down or stopped running.

* * *

><p><em><span>Back at the house<span>_

"I hurt...I hurt a lot..."

"I know Eric, I know. It will get better soon, I promise..."

"But it fucking hurts! Make it go away!"

"Alright, calm the hell down already." I practically shouted in my husband's face as I pushed him against the wall in the hallway of our house, finally getting him to sit still once we were inside out of the path of the sun's rays. I watched him slide down to the floor, his skin still flaming red and looking painful as he looked up at me just as Sookie and Alcide walked into the house and shut the door. Alcide was back to his natural form, which meant no clothes and as he was reaching for them, I turned back to look at Eric's pitiful face and sighed. "Alright, I really shouldn't be doing this considering my blood made you act stupid. But you're in pain and this is the only way that will help you heal faster..."

"Is that really such a good idea?" Alcide asked, gaining my attention with the apprehension in his voice and I turned to see him pulling his jeans back on. I could tell without reading his mind that he did not relish the idea of seeing me allow Eric to feed on my blood. Alcide was a werewolf and just instinctively did not like vampires or watching them fed on humans. But at the moment I could not care what this guy thought or cared about. "Giving him your blood I mean?"

"He's hurt, he needs my help." I almost snapped as I rolled up my sleeve, sending him a look to be quiet before I leaned in close to Eric and offered him my wrist. "Go ahead. Drink."

Eric needed no further urging as he latched on immediately, forgetting to be gentle and made me gasp slightly when his fangs pierced my skin and he started to drink. I ignored it however and stayed there on my knees by his side, knowing it wouldn't last long. He only needed enough blood to heal him sufficiently and then it would be over. And I would make sure he understood to stay inside until night fall so we didn't have a repeat of this morning because I frankly couldn't handle it for a second time. I propped my free arm up on my knee and set my chin in my hand and as Eric kept sucking at my wrist, I turned my head and caught sight of Alcide across the hall watching this exchange with a deep set frown on his face. I could tell by the expression in his eyes that he was thinking about something very intensely and even though I knew I shouldn't have, I couldn't help but dip into his brain to see exactly what it was he was thinking about...

_"I can't believe she is letting that ass hole drink her blood. I don't care if he is her husband. It's not right."_

_"..She seems like a nice girl, and beautiful too. A girl like her has no __business being mixed up with vampires...She deserves better..."_

_"...look at her looking at him like he's the best thing that ever happened to her, what crock of shit. She shouldn't be married to a vampire. And especially not a vampire like him..."_

"Eric? Eric, that's enough." I told him, looking down to find him staring up at me after I spoke and I watched him retract his fangs so I could take back my arm. I could see that he wasn't thrilled at being stopped but from what I read from his thoughts, he knew he had no choice. I rolled my sleeve back down covering the fang marks securely before I got myself and Eric back to our feet. I reached for his hand, keeping my eyes on his face as I tugged him towards the basement door. "Come on, it's time for you to rest."

"But I don't want to rest, I want to be out there in the sun." He told me with a forlorn look as I pushed him down the steps, leaving Sookie and Alcide by the front door as we made our way downstairs. The steel door was partially open from when the others went down to rest for the day and as I pushed it open, I could clearly see where they had situated themselves. Godric and Louie were sitting on the floor against one wall, Helen and Gabriel and Alec against the opposite wall, and Pam and Bill on the wall to the right side of the door. All of them asleep as I lead Eric to the empty bed in the corner and pushed him down. He laid there on the big bed willingly, staring up at me with big eyes. "I'm sad now. I wanted it all . The night, the day. All of it."

"But you can't have the sun, it will kill you." I tried to get him to understand, reaching out to touch his bare shoulder but I felt hurt when he rolled over on his side and set his back to me with a depressed look on his face. I tried not to let the hurt show. "Eric..."

"Just leave me alone please." He muttered, not looking at me again as I had no choice but to move away from the bed towards the door. I knew it was only a mood of his so I wasn't entirely wounded by his dismissal. As I left the room, I looked back at him one more time and I could tell he was still awake but he wouldn't look at me so I finally left, pulling the door securely behind me before making my way upstairs.

When I reached the top and came out on to the main floor, I spotted Alcide still standing by the front door only this time he was alone. I could hear Sookie in the kitchen talking on the phone, probably to Sam to tell him she wouldn't be in for work today. So while she was busy doing that, I made my way over to the now completely dressed werewolf, knowing I owed him a huge thank you for what he had done.

"So he's finally down for the day, all thanks to you." I said when I reached him, having to tilt my head back to look him in the eye but I was use to it being that he and Eric were pretty much the same height. I crossed my arms, making sure to keep the fabric on my raw wrist while I spoke. "Look, I know I was sort of rude to you earlier and that's not normally how I am but I was..."

"You were consumed with worry. No need to explain, I get it. And besides, it was nothing." He replied, shrugging his large shoulders and sending me the first true smile of his that day and it almost immediately put me at ease. Maybe Sookie was right about him, maybe he was a good guy after all. He had certainly acted like it by doing what we asked of him. "I was just glad to help out an old friend. And now a new friend, which I hope I can call you."

"You helped find my husband before he went up in flames. I think that qualifies you as my friend now." I told him with a smile, feeling a sort of kinship with him already even though this was our first meeting. But there were just some people that you met that you instantly knew were going to be friends for life. And I felt that here and now, sort of like how I felt about Louie and Godric in the beginning. I smiled again. "I think your friendship will be one I will appreciate for a while to come. I have a good feeling about you."

"I'm one of the good ones and a good werewolf. You will be very lucky to have me on your side." He said with a smirk, showing the pride that he had in himself and what he was and I had to say I hadn't really seen that before. It was a nice gesture and further reinforced my good feeling about him. "If you ever need more help, even if it involves vampires again, you should call me. I'd be more then willing to come assist you."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. Good bye Alcide." I grinned, watching him open the door and head down the steps towards his truck. I knew that this would not be the last time I saw him, call it intuition, but I just knew that with Eric still under the curse Alcide's help would come to play again. He climbed into his truck, waving goodbye to me as Sookie came back into the hallway and stood with me as we both watched him drive away and I couldn't help but say. "I think I'm going to like him."

"I knew you would."

* * *

><p><em><span>That Night<span>_

"Alright, alright. Can we get a hold of ourselves please? Eric is alive and well and is in no immediate danger. Now can we please get along with what we are suppose to be talking about?"

Helen had to stifle a smile at the sight of her not so little brother anymore, attempting to get the attention of the group back on him and having very little success in doing it. Not that she could completely blame the others for that. Once they risen after the sun had fallen in the sky, their first priority was finding out what happened with Eric and everyone was more then relieved to find him down in the basement with him. And that in turn had brought them all up to find Allie and Sookie to hear the details of how he had been recovered. Naturally when Helen heard that Sookie had brought in a werewolf, she wasn't entirely happy but then again it wasn't up to her to have an opinion on that and even she had to admit that not every werewolf was like the one who had once attacked Alec over a thousand years ago. So she had sat back and just listened to the tale of Eric's escapades before the conversation attempted to turn to the witch crisis and Antonia.

"He's right..." Bill finally cut in, being the one to finally gain control and turn the chatter to the more pressing matter at hand as he waved his hands to make every one shut up. "Eric's safe and we really ought to be discussing how to deal with this necromancer problem."

"I don't know what we're suppose to do but I do know a little something about the problem we're facing." Alec went on to say once Bill had commanded the group into silence. Louie and Godric were both looking at him with what appeared to be doubtful looks on their faces and Helen could almost understand why. The last time they had all seen him, he had been just a little boy and now he was a grown man and a vampire trying to give them all information about a witch. It was quite a turn around that they needed to get use to. "In the years I spent searching for my sister, I came across a lot of other supernatural beings that include witches and necromancers. And more importantly, I met Antonia when she was alive."

"What?" Helen couldn't stop herself from saying out loud before she frowned. "You're serious? You met this old hag?"

"Wow Helen, you're so elegant in how you speak." Alec retorted with a smirk, rolling his eyes very obviously so they all could see and she sat back on the couch with a frown on her lips as he went on. "And yes, I did meet her. In the 1600's I was passing through her country when we crossed paths and I should tell you now that you are going to have your hands fulls if she really is possessing this other witch."

"What do you mean exactly?" Bill frowned, his calm face dropping a little like he was already turning the wheels in his head for a reaction. "What do you know about her?"

"Only that she was a powerful necromancer in her time and had a grudge against vampires up until her death. You see, she belonged to a coven that had been captured by vampires and they were tortured just for pleasure. Especially Antonia, she was powerful and the vampires wanted to make her feel weak and useless. And when she was being burned at the stake by the city officials, she conjured up a spell to draw all the vampires in a 20 mile radius out into the sun to burn. She wanted revenge on them for what they had done to her. Even in her near death state she was still able to exact her vengeance."

"And now her spirit has returned to finish off the job." Bill finished for him, shaking his head with a growl. "Well that's just perfect."

"If her spirit has found it's way into the body of this witch, then she can wield her power again just as she did before." Alec continued, looking around at the rest of the group to make sure he was stressing how serious this was. "She will be as powerful as she was when she was alive. Perhaps even more so since this body she is possessing already has power of its own."

"Well we can't move in and attack until we know for sure we won't be killing an innocent human." Bill reluctantly said, running his fingers through his hair like he wanted to yank it out instead. "Killing an innocent will sure fuck us over in the eyes of the AVL."

"We do need to be careful in whatever way we choose to approach this. If she really is possessing this woman, then that old grudge she has against our kind could flare up and we will be more then just a little fucked." Alec warned them, his eyes scanning the group almost protectively before settling on her and she could see why. They just found each other for the first time in a thousand years and she couldn't bear the thought of this bitch ruining that. So she wanted to act now, but she knew her brother was right. They had to use their heads. "She can cause destruction if she feels threatened again, we need to be smart about this."

"At least until we come up with a better plan." Helen grumbled in response, never really one to have to think things through. But this wasn't just involving her, this involved other lives too and she did not want to be responsible for getting the others killed or hurt in anyway. She looked at her brother and Bill and said. "Alright, you guys call the shots."

* * *

><p><em><span>2 hours later<span>_

I was sitting alone in the living staring at the fire when Eric appeared in the doorway later that night. We were the only ones left in the house being that the others had long since disappeared after we had discussed Antonia and the witch situation and I had been quite content with ushering them all out so I could be alone. Or as alone as I could be with my husband in the house. He and I hadn't spoken since this morning, not even when the other vampires had risen at sundown to hear about the day. And right now, he seemed quite content with just standing there in silence. In fact it got so awkward and heavy that I was even considering getting up to leave the room without even acknowledging him at all. But before I could even more to do that, he closed the space between us and came to sit down on the sofa next to me with his hands settled on his knees and his eyes on the floor.

"I'm sorry." He said roughly, not turning to look at me even though I had turned away from the fire to look at him. From what I could see from the side of his face, he was looking guilty and shamed and from what I heard in his head, I knew it was about what happened earlier between us. "I shouldn't have talked to you the way I did. It wasn't your fault. You were only trying to help me."

"That's true, I meant only to keep you safe and you seemed to blame me for making you stay down in the dark." I replied, running my fingers through my hair, catching sight of the slightly healed fang marks on the inside of my wrist. "I just didn't want anything else to happen to you. I hate seeing you in pain."

"You were being kind and I was rude to you in return. That was not fair of me." Eric shook his head, looking almost disgusted with himself which is what the old version of him would never do. He lifted his head and finally turned to look at me and once again I was overwhelmed with the lost look in his blue orbs. "Can you forgive me for my rudeness?"

"You won't remember this, but I have forgiven you for much worse things then your manners." I almost smiled, remembering all the things he had done to me in the course of our relationship that were levels and world worse then the way he acted today. But he couldn't recall that so I would just have to give him a peace of mind for now. "It's ok Eric, I forgive you."

"Really?" Eric seemed surprised at this, judging by the way he sat up straight and looked at me face on like he honestly thought I would hold a grudge against him for this. His face changed suddenly and took on a much more Eric type of expression that I would have been glad to see had it not been underlined with a sense of embarrassment in his eyes. "Would you forgive me if I made a small confession right now?"

"It would depend on what that confession is." I replied, cocking my head to the side as I was slightly amused by the look on his face. It was almost like he was nervous.

"I want to kiss you again." He admitted, saying what I would have guessed if he had delayed saying it for another few seconds. He looked at me with a guarded look. "But I also don't want to because you smell like werewolf right now."

"Oh my God that is funny." I couldn't help but laugh at this comment, it sounded so similar to what he had said the night I had come home after my car accident and had killed that werewolf. He had said something along the same lines and it made me smile at the reminder of the old Eric. I looked at him with a smile. "But it's only because he had to get close to pick up your scent so we could find you..."

"I don't the idea of anyone being that close to you, especially a werewolf. No matter what he was doing." Eric told me, sounding almost possessive and he actually reached out to wrap his hand around my arm the way he use to. "You are mine after all."

"I always will be." I assured him and for the first time since he was curse I actually found myself wanting to be close to him and I moved towards him and cuddled up to his side. I laid my head on his shoulder, wrapping my arms around his and feeling like I could almost pretend that everything was alright. My words came out in a whisper. "I love you Eric."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." I said before going silent again and still at his side.


	10. When all else comes undone

**Chapter 10 When all else comes undone**

_A few nights later_

"You are so beautiful." Eric told me a few nights later as we sat alone outside on the back porch and stared up at the stars in a near silence. Well, I was looking at the stars, Eric had more or less been staring at me the whole time. I don't know what he found so riveting about my looks but he was always saying how stunning I was and it was a little weird to be told that so often. "I am very lucky to have you."

"Yea, you are." I couldn't help but say back, turning my face away from the sky to look at him. I was taken aback by the wonder struck look in his eyes, he had never stared at me like that before. "My God you have to stop proclaiming your admiration for me every night..."

"Why? Does it make you uncomfortable?" He asked with a smirk, his lips turning up slightly at the corners and I could see his fingers making their way towards me. I heard my breath falter as it always did when Eric was about to touch me, even now when he didn't know who he was. I felt his hand brush against my hand laying on the porch before covering it with his large one. "Do I make you uncomfortable?"

"No, of course not." I protested, trying to pull my hand away discretely without him being too offended. "I'm just not use to your admiration being so direct and so innocent sounding."

"Me? Innocent?" Eric looked surprised by my choice of words to describe him and he was actually the one to pull away in mock offense. "But I'm a vampire, I'm a thousand years old. I don't think I could have ever been all that innocent."

"Well that's true, but that was back when you knew who you were. It's different now." I explained, looking over him again like I had been doing a lot since all this happened. It was still him in there, lost but still there. He looked the same, sometimes reacted the same. He was still my husband, but without his memories, he was just an empty shell. I looked up to meet his eyes. "You're so different. So..."

"Romantic?" He offered the word to me with what was probably the most charming smile of his yet as his fingers went up to my face and brushed the hair from my eyes before I could pull back. The moment I didn't instantly put more distance between us, he took that as an invitation and got closer, pitting his face only inches from mine. "I want to kiss you."

"Eric stop." I tried not to let my face redden as I whipped up my hand in front of his face to keep his lips to himself. I don't know why I did it, it was just a reflex at this point. "You're being silly."

"No I'm being honest. I want to kiss you." He pushed further, abandoning his spot for my mouth and instead placed his lips on my neck like he was going to bite me. But instead, he kissed me there, stirring something deep inside of me that I knew he could sense because he pulled back so our eyes were level. "Actually that's a lie, I don't just want to kiss you. I want to do more with you."

"Well sorry, that's not going to happen." I pushed him back and even though I didn't physically have the strength to do that, he backed off considerably so I could sit up again. "Sorry, but sex is out of the question."

"Why?" He asked, his face drawing deep into a frown as he leaned against the railing across from me. "Why can't we have sex? What's the problem?"

"I don't know. It's just..." I shrugged, trying to find the words to say what I had been feeling as of late. It's not that I didn't want to have sex with him, because trust me I did. But I was holding back for a reason. "You're just so different from your usual self. This version of you is so nice and sweet..."

"And that's a bad thing?" He asked, his eyebrows raising high in his forehead. "I would think you would like a nice man to treat you right..."

"I do like that, and it is nice to have you act like that with me. It's very sweet, but..." I stammered, coming to pause as my mind blanked on how I could explain this without completely messing this dynamic up. "It's also not you. The old Eric would never be this nice and sweet, and right now you are going against what I know to be my husband."

"And once again, that's a problem?"

"It is because that version and this version are so radically different that it makes you and him seem like two different vampires." I protested, hating that I had less control over this situation then ever before. I shook my head at him and shrugged. "I just feel that if I am intimate with you, then it's going to make me feel like I'm cheating on you. You know?"

"I guess I understand that." He nodded, looking defeated as we sat there on the porch with a tiny space between us that felt miles wide rather then less then a foot. He looked at me again and said. "Can I be honest with you right now? About something that I have been wondering about?"

"Of course you can."

"I think I loved you, when I knew who I was." Eric said, startling me when he used that word for the first time. His eyes were trailed on me intently, like he was waiting for a reaction that he knew was coming. "Is this true? Not every husband and wife love each other. But is it true that we did?"

"Yes it is, you loved me very much. And I loved you in return." I nodded, trying to hold back the tears from spilling over from their sudden emergence. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand just to be sure "We had a very long history together. It was filled with troubles and bad situation, but we loved each other very deeply."

"I wish I could remember it." He grumbled in response, crossing his arms tightly as he sat back with hunched shoulders like he was yet again disappointed. "I wish I could remember us."

"I wish you could too." I sighed softly before we fell into silence like we had been doing a lot lately.

* * *

><p><em><span>1 hour later<span>_

"Now you two are going to behave yourselves while we are here." Helen warned the two male vampires standing behind her on the front porch of Allison's house, pressing heavily on the same point she had made when they left her house. "We're here to give that girl a break and I don't want either of you to be doing anything disrespectful."

"For God Sakes, you sound like my mother." Gabriel shot back, his lips curling upward in an attempt to hold back his laughter as he sent a look sideways at Alec who was displaying the same reaction. "You know we would never do anything stupid. Not when all this is going on."

"Yea, give us more credit then that." Alec pointed out, his brown eyes rolling rapidly before he ran his fingers through his hair. "We can behave when we need to."

"You better." Helen shot them each a look, before turning back to the door and ringing the bell. She knew her progeny and brother wouldn't do anything stupid, but she couldn't help but bark at them like a mother hen. She had come here on behalf of Godric when he thought it would be great for Allie to have some different company for the night and had urged Helen to bring Gabriel and Alec with her. And as she stood here waiting for the door to open, she wondered if her presence would make any difference to this poor girl. Well she would get her answer soon as she saw the door opening and a startled face appearing in front of them. "Hello Allison."

"Helen! What are you guys doing here?" The young girl exclaimed, standing on her toes to look around at the other two vampires standing there before settling back down on her feet. "I mean, hi. But seriously, what are you doing here?"

"We came to offer our services." Alec stated, moving forward into the house after she stepped aside and let them step through the doorway. "Godric felt like you needed some company so we are here to do his bidding."

"It would be just like Godric to do something like that." Allison responded, a small smiling appearing on her face before she looked over her shoulder to where Eric had just entered the hallway to join them, looking lost as usual. Allie's face changed just slightly before she said. "I appreciate it, thanks. But I don't know how fun it will be for you guys or Eric …."

"You leave that up to us. We got it." Gabriel insisted, nodding towards Eric with a goodhearted grin on his face. "We're going to take Eric out for a while to give you a break and Helen is going to hang out here with you..."

"I get to go out?" Eric stood up excitedly,obviously looking thrilled about this as he probably hadn't been out since his escape from being high on Fae blood. "I like that idea."

"Of course you do." Allison replied, looking back at him with a frown as her hands twisted her hands nervously. "But you guys can't take him around the general public. If people saw that he wasn't acting like himself, then it might get around and..."

"And you're worried about it getting into the wrong hands. Yea we know." Alec nodded, stepping closer to Eric and motioning towards the door. "We will look after him. It will only be for like an hour or so. And then we will deliver him back to you."

"I will behave, I promise." Eric insisted, looking down at the young Fae with large innocent eyes before he back away to the open doorway. "I won't run off again."

"You better not." Allison warned him,but she sent the bulk of her warning to Alec and Gabriel who had the good sense to simply remain quiet while she waved her hands through the air. "Alright go ahead. Have fun."

Eric didn't need to be told twice and neither did the other males as all three shot out the door, slamming it behind them and leaving Helen and Allison alone together. For a second, there was just complete silence as Helen just kind of stood there, unsure of what to say. Allison seemed to be feeling the same way as she just shuffled her feet before turning on her heels and walking into the nearby living room where she dropped down on to the leather sofa with her head leaning against her closed fist. Helen followed after her, knowing she probably needed to talk and needed more of a female perspective rather then an opinion from the males around her. So Helen took a spot next to her, hoping she wouldn't do much to screw this up and cause her more pain.

"So..." Helen began, pushing her blonde hair out of her face and turning her head in Allison's direction. "How are you?"

"That's a loaded question now isn't it?" The girl sighed, dropping her arm down to her side while her eyes went to stare at her hands to contemplate the question. "I'm..."

"Torn, conflicted, broken? Yea, I kind of know how you feel." Helen finished for her, blurting out her own matched feelings that she didn't plan on doing. But being around Allison somehow pushed down the walls she often kept up. "Even as a vampire, I still feel the same things I felt when I was human. And seeing you go through all this in front of me makes me want to at least try and offer my friendship to you if you need it."

"Well I'm grateful for that, it's not the same talking with Bill or Godric or Louie. They're guys, even when they weren't vampires, I doubt they were all for talking about feelings." Allison cracked a smile at this despite the waves of frustration Helen felt coming off of her. She ran her fingers through her dark brown hair with a heavy sigh. "I just, don't know how I'm still functioning with this whole thing. I mean, I knew the peace wouldn't last long in our lives. But I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon after we got married. It sucks so majorly that we had this huge life changing moment and we can't even celebrate it."

"I know. I mean, I don't know because nothing like this has happened to me. But I can imagine what you're going through." Helen wrinkled her nose, knowing she wasn't off to a good start with this conversation. But she wasn't sure how she was suppose to be a good friend when she had nothing to contribute to the conversation. She had never been married or had anyone close to her be cursed the way Eric was. So how was she suppose to offer comfort? She looked at Allison and shrugged. "I don't know how you can deal with this. I would be tearing my hair out right about now."

"Trust me, I'm close to getting to that point." Allie agreed, bring her legs up close to her chest. "I'm so incredibly upset that he doesn't remember anything about himself or me or our marriage. There is nothing worse I can imagine happening right now because he's still in there but he's blocked from being himself with me. And I want to hurt those witches for doing this to us."

"Oh, you're not alone. I myself am fighting about my own anger towards this group." Helen confessed, her eyes turning to slits as her thoughts turned to witches. She had never liked them in all her years of being a vampire. She had never been personally attacked by one, but she still had ill feelings about them. "But I'm mostly overcome with feelings of sadness for you. I feel bad for you."

"It's funny that you say that, because every time I see you I always feel sadness for your situation. So it's ironic that you just said the same thing." Allie said, setting her chin on her knees as she looked at her face on for the first time. "Maybe that's why I feel like I can open up to you. Because you are having your own relationship problems."

"I forgot that you knew about that." Helen almost flinched from the mention of her unresolved issues with Louie. She hadn't had time to think about it all that much with what was going on with Allie and Eric but now she couldn't help but let it seep in. "And I appreciate your compassion for my own problems, but I'm here to lend a shoulder to you."

"Well thank you for that. But just know that I can be there for you in the same way." The girl offered with a small smile, seemingly glad to have the attention off her troubles even for just a few seconds. "And to be honest, I think your issues with Louie will change sooner then mine will. I just remember how Louie talked about you in the beginning of our friendship before we knew you were out there and he was just so infatuated with you. So I think it will work out."

"Thank you." Helen was surprisingly touched by this and she actually reached out for the girl's hand and squeezed it gently out of gratitude. "And I know things with Eric will get better too. It's just going to take a little time."

"I don't know how much more I can take..."

* * *

><p><em><span>45 minutes later<span>_

"I hate them. I seriously fucking hate them." Helen found herself muttering as she stood outside on the moonlit back porch and glared up at the glittering stars. "I don't think I've ever hated anyone this much."

"Actually I disagree with you on that. I think our parents, particularly our father, are included on your list of people to hate. But I don't think you were referring to them were you?" Alec's teasing voice came from behind her as he stepped out the back door onto the porch to join her for the first time since she they had arrived at the house together. She watched as he settled against the opposite railing from her with his arms crossed. "So who are you hating right now?"

"The necromancers of course. They are the main problem right now and I really want to kill them for all the trouble they're causing." Helen couldn't stop herself from saying with a growl underneath her breath. She was so beyond annoyed with these witches, more so perhaps because of the time she had just spent with Allison. That short period of time had made her sympathize with the young Faerie and Helen was amazed that with the girl's history of bad things happening to her, that she was still relatively sane. Helen couldn't say the same for herself had she been in that situation. "I mean, I hate standing by and doing nothing while they get away with hurting a vampire so viciously and destroying that poor girl in the process for no reason."

"I know what you mean and I don't like being at a standstill any more then you do, but we have no choice. The King has made his decision and until he says differently, we have to just wait." Alec pointed out pushing his sandy blonde hair out of his eyes before shrugging heavily. She could see it in his face that it was almost torture for him to not go after witches who had wronged a vampire. She may have only been reunited with him for a short time, but already she knew how he felt about certain things. He was fiercely loyal of his own kind, and had he still been just a Faerie, then he would defend their original race. But now he was a vampire and his allegiance had turned. And he was thrust into a brewing situation that was threatening to boil over at any second. "Antonia has a grudge against our kind, you know this. And it's unfortunate that she chose..."

"But why Eric? Him going to investigate couldn't have been the first time they were confronted. No vampire authority likes necromancers. Why did she choose to come after him, whose wife is friends with both of my exes? I'm sorry but this feels personal to me." Helen retorted, flipping her long hair behind her shoulders as she struggled to keep her temper in check. She had been stewing about this for a while now, that Antonia must have possessed Marnie on purpose, chose Shreveport on purpose as a personal vendetta against their group. She looked at her little brother and clenched her teeth. "I just want to understand why she targeted him."

"Maybe someone put her up to it. Maybe there is someone out there trying to exact revenge or something on Eric or Allison. I don't know. No one has answers right now." Alec said, looking like he too was fighting back his own struggle with maintaining an even temper. "But who did it is not as important as what we need to do to fix it."

"I know you're right, but after talking with Allison about how she's coping, it just reminds me of how angry I am about all this." Helen admitted, tightly crossing her arms around her frozen body and turned to look out at the moon light laying across the grass. "It's just not fair for this to happen to them. No couple should have to face this much pain. They should have had more time."

"Are you sure you're still talking about them?" Alec asked suddenly, grinning like a fool like he knew some secret she didn't. Or in this case, that he was going to say something completely outrageous. "Or are you thinking about yourself and Louie when you said that?"

"Be careful Alec. You may be a vampire now, but I'm still your big sister." Helen narrowed her eyes, not liking that her younger brother, although grown was putting it to her like he didn't think she was going to strike back. He had another thing coming. "And I'm also an older vampire, that gives me power over you."

"Please, you didn't boss me around when I was a kid and you won't do it now." Alec waved his hand through the air between them, showing that he wasn't scared in the slightest of her. Not that she would ever hurt him, but she was going to make sure that he knew it wasn't ok to make comments on her issues with Louie. That had yet to be worked out and she didn't need her brother running commentary on her personal life. But he didn't seem to want to let it go just yet. He just had to have the last word. " Besides, you know I'm right about what I said."

"You need to shut up." Helen shot back, her eyebrows drawing low on her forehead. "You're getting on my last nerve."

"I'm so scared right now." Alec snickered, rolling his eyes before dropping to the top step and stretched his legs out. "But apparently I just hit a soft spot."

* * *

><p><em><span>1 hour later<span>_

"Is it alright if I sit with you for a while?" A quiet voice asked from across the room, interrupting my moment of silence where I had been lost in thought for a while. I turned towards the doorway of the library, finding Eric hovering there and looking unsure. This would be the first time we had been alone since Helen and her brother and progeny had shown up tonight. Eric looked hopeful. "I promise to behave myself this time."

"Come sit down." I patted the spot on the floor next to me where I was sitting in front of the fire and beckoned him to come over. After the talk I had with Helen tonight, I felt slightly better about the situation with Eric, only because I had a chance to unload to someone I didn't know as well as the others. Sometimes that was more helpful and I could see that when I actually wanted Eric to come sit with me. So when he was settled, I tried to smile at him. "So, how did you like Alec and Gabriel? Were they nice to you?"

"They were fine, perfectly adequate companionship." He nodded, his long legs having to turn sideways to avoid going directly into the fire. He cocked his head so he was looking at me and his smile was almost shy. "But I prefer your company the most."

"I'm not giving you more of my blood, so don't try to butter me up with your compliments." I warned him, knowing that it was a miracle that Eric hadn't gone off the deep end the last time he had my blood and I was not going to risk rocking the boat again. The only exception would be if he had been hurt and needed to heal. But other then that, it was a no go. "I don't want what happened the other day to happen again..."

"I wasn't trying to seduce you into letting me feed on you. I promise." He held up his hands, looking very much like a normal human as he did this. "Honestly, I was just saying the truth. That is ok right?"

"Yea it's ok." I assured him, relieved that I wasn't going to have to fight him off tonight. But it wasn't just him that I was holding back for, it was for me too. When Eric fed on me, it was just as pleasurable for me as it was for him. The sounds he made and the way he moved against me were just feelings I wasn't ready to deal with right now when he was like this. So cutting him off was for the best. But at least right now, he was just saying what was on his mind. "I would rather you tell me instead of having to read your mind to find out for myself."

"I will always try to tell you the truth." He said as convincingly as he could and for a second I almost believed it because he looked so certain. And seeing him try that hard was very endearing and it pleased me to see him put in that effort. He must have been able to tell because the next second I felt his fingers brush against mine as he tried to take my hand, but I instinctively pulled away. A spasm of hurt splashed across his face just then. "I'm sorry, I thought it was ok to..."

"No I'm sorry. I just reacted instantly without thinking." I quickly said, knowing I had hurt his feelings by my brush off. I learned it from his quickly moving thoughts and I wanted him to understand it wasn't because of him. At least not entirely. "But I don't think its a good idea to try to initiate intimacy right now..."

"Do you not love me anymore? Is that it?" He asked suddenly, his hand pulling back to his lap as his tone dropped considerably from the happy tone he had originally come at me with. "Is that why you're always resisting me?"

"Eric, this has nothing to do with my love for you." I sat back, feeling more pained by his words then I was expecting. It was one thing to feel the confusion in myself. But to hear it vocalized by him was another thing entirely and it left me feeling shaky and so unsure I could barely look at him. "I do love you. But when I look at you, I feel like I don't know you."

"Then get to know me." He insisted, reaching out to grab my hands in between his and holding on to them gently, a feat he had never truly mastered when he knew who he was. But to him, that didn't seem to matter right now. "Get to know me, this version of me."

"I just...I can't deal with this right now." I shook my head, pulling my hands away from him and scrambling to my feet. All of a sudden it felt like the wall were caving in on me and I felt the need to get out. I looked down at Eric, still on the floor where he hadn't moved and I backed away slowly. "I need some time alone right now. I think I'm just going to go for a walk."

Eric didn't even try to stop me as I fled to the front door and threw it open only to head out alone into the dark night and hope that it could give me the clarity I needed.

* * *

><p><em><span>25 minutes later<span>_

_"Do you not love me anymore..."_

"Oh man, if there was anything in the world I did not want to hear at this moment, it was that." I grumbled to myself as I kicked at a rock by my foot as I slowly walked down the empty road after turning out of the driveway, determined to at least get 30 minutes alone so I could clear my head. But Eric's words kept on coming back to me and try as I might, I just couldn't forget them. I shouldn't have to feel bad about the way I felt since it was like I told Eric earlier tonight. He was so different that it felt like this version and the real version were 2 different vampires. So right now he felt like a stranger and I couldn't be blamed entirely for not feeling right about being close to him. It just felt too hard. But I couldn't help but feel guilty for my behavior.

I mean, look at it logically. I was able to do that now that I was alone with myself. I had just married Eric, made vows to love him and be there for him through good times and bad times. And him not knowing who the hell he was was definitely one of the bad times. I hadn't stopped loving him despite having yet another obstacle thrown in our paths. I would always love him no matter what we faced for the rest of our lives. That wouldn't change. But was I really being there for him right now when he needed me the most? That's where it got confusing and made me think I wasn't being as good a wife as I could be. Yes I was taking care of him, but not in every aspect that I would have had he not been cursed. We hadn't made love since the night of our wedding and even in his cursed state, Eric was craving my physical love. He had made it obvious on more then one occasion and every time I shot him down. And I could see it was bothering him more and more each time. He may not remember that he loved me, but he understood that I was his wife and he wanted to keep that relationship as normal as it had been. And I just couldn't seem to give in to it. It wasn't like I was cheating on him, but that was how it felt like. He was just so tenderhearted right now, and that wasn't the Eric I fell in love with. So in a way it was like they were two different people.

"Damn it, am I ever going to have just one year of normalcy with him?" I growled, glad that there was no one else taking a nightly stroll right now or else I would be getting a lot of weird looks for how much I was muttering and talking to myself. But even then I wasn't sure I would care all that much.

I knew the answer to my question all ready of course, I just didn't want to admit it right away. After all it was not the ideal answer someone like me wanted. Despite all that had happened already to me and to him, I guess I held out hope that getting married would start this new chapter in our lives where we would finally find peace. But I was beginning to realize that peace just wasn't in the cards for us. Eric was a thousand year old vampire who had a long history of pissing people off and making enemies and he had his own enemies to get revenge on. And I was what was probably the last full blooded Faerie around and that meant I was always going to attract enemies of my own. My blood was special, not just to vampires but to witches and demons and werewolves. There really wasn't ever going to be a safe time in my life. At least not longer then a few weeks at a time...

I was so busy thinking that I never noticed that I was no longer alone on this road anymore. I lifted my head just out of habit only to catch sight of a taller female figure standing down the road from me with mousey brown hair. I didn't recognize her at first as she moved closer to me and I came to a stop. It was only when she didn't stop coming at me and passed through the moonlight that I realized who I was staring at. Of course I wouldn't have known her right off the bat, being that I had only met her one time before. But now, I was seeing her face clearly.

"Marnie?" I said tentatively, not taking a step forward as I did not like the feeling I was getting from this sudden confrontation. What the hell was she doing on the same street that I lived on? That couldn't have been a coincidence. I eyed her slowly moving figure, seeing that she wasn't even looking at me and I wondered if this was just a case of her taking a walk as I was. So I tried speaking again. "Marnie, what are you doing out here? Marnie? Marnie?"

Her head snapped up so fast that you would have thought I had yelled at her. Her eyes shot up to look at me for the first time and they clouded over so heavily it was almost as if I had just insulted her rather then asked her a simple question. Her face changed so drastically it was like she suddenly was taken over by a realization that she had to make known to me. And when she opened her mouth to speak, she solidified the bad feeling I had felt just moments ago.

"I am not Marnie...My name is Antonia."

**a/N: oh boy...trouble has finally come face to face with allison...who knows what will become of this**


	11. Waiting for the sun

**Chapter 11 Waiting for the sun**

"Well well well. Looks like we have a showdown here, don't we?" Antonia said to me with a wry, crooked smile as we stood apart from one another like we had since she announced who was really occupying Marnie's body. I hadn't been able to do anything but stand there like an idiot once she had spoken and it wasn't because I was under a spell or anything. I was just generally taken aback and when I was caught off guard like that, I tended to just freeze in place until I was able to function again. I watched as Antonia moved closer to me, her eyes trailed on my face like she was studying me. "You're the girl that came into the shop aren't you?"

"Maybe I am." I replied, finding my voice as well as feeling in my limbs and I stepped back, wanting as much distance between us as possible. And as I kept my gaze tightly on her for any sudden movement, I couldn't help but snap back a comment of my own. "And you're the bitch that cursed my husband."

"Oh, you have quite the mouth on you despite your innocent looks. Marnie warned me about you." Antonia's heavily accented voice came out of Marnie's mouth, causing such a contrast that it was hard to believe it wasn't just Marnie making that sound. She really was possessed by this ancient necromancer who stared at me with all knowing eyes. "You know what else she mentioned?"

"Oh I can only imagine that could be." I hissed back at her, knowing I was probably doing more harm for my self by answering her back with such a tone but I could not help it. I was face to face with the witch who had stolen every memory from my husband and had destroyed my life in the process. I was not going to play nice with her. "Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it..."

"She said she could sense a power in you and now that I'm standing here with you, I can sense it as well. You have witch blood in you, I can practically smell it on your skin." Antonia went on, touching on the point that nearly every witch could tell about me when I was in their vicinity. I was use to hearing it by now but it didn't mean it was any less creepy. I had accepted that I had this power inside of me, but there was no way I would ever give in to it and explore it. I just did not care to have it. But Antonia seemed intrigued by it considering what she said next. "You would make a powerful necromancer, my girl. I could help you with that."

"Um yea, I don't think so. I have no interest in being a witch" I gritted my teeth so hard that it made my jaw ache. "But I will tell you what I am interested in. You removing the curse on Eric, now that I would like to see happen."

"That's just not in the cards little girl. Your husband deserved it for threatening my kind. I am not a witch you want to offend because I will retaliate. The vampires back in my time experienced that when I forced them all out into the sun. They underestimated my power. Just like Eric Northman did." Antonia laughed, clearly proud of herself for what she had done. It wasn't so much her words that were shocking but it was the images that were racing through her mind right now, showing me just how she had forced the vampires from the 1600's out into the day light to burn into a pile of ashes. It chilled me right now to the core to see that and when she met my eyes again, I saw her lips twitch upward. "And if you're not careful, you will be presumed guilty by association. And I might just have to burn you along with your precious vampires. I will do what I have to do."

"You can stop with the empty threats, you don't scare me." I shot back at her smug face, feeling my defiance flare up inside of my chest and it occurred to me right then that I was not in the least bit afraid of her. Even knowing what she had done to the vampires back in the day and seeing what she did to Eric, I just was not frightened at all. I was more angry then anything. "And you are the one that should be careful. You pissed me off and I am the wrong person to mess with right now."

"You stupid little girl..." Antonia frowned, her hands twitching noticeably as she raised her palms up to face me. Her mind was racing, forming something in a another language that I could not recognize but I guessed she was trying to cast a spell. "You are going to regret that..."

"No way in hell." I didn't waste another second in waiting to react and my own hands shot up in defense and before she could utter a word out loud, the white light burst from not only my palms but every single one of my fingers. I watched in fascination as the beams hit Antonia clear in the chest and sent her flying off of her feet and blasted her down the road from me. I dropped my hands to my sides, my fists clenched hard as I was proud that I had been able to defend myself against a necromancer. I had refused to be a victim and I had been unafraid in confronting her. I watched with wide eyes as she sat up in the dusty dirt road, her head shaking and her clothes off kilter but otherwise she was uninjured. It hadn't been my intention to hurt her, just let her know who was in charge here. But as I watched her look around and her eyes land back on me, I saw that her brown orbs were filled with confusion. Almost like she didn't know what was going on. I didn't know why, but I took a step forward. "Marnie?"

"Wha...what happened?" She asked me, scooting back when I had moved closer and it had just solidified that whatever I had done, somehow Antonia had fled from Marnie's body for the moment and left us alone on this dark road. She hesitantly got to her feet, dusting herself off as she kept a close watch on me. "How did I end up here?"

"Don't try the innocent act, I know you and Marnie are partners in crime." I told her, remembering what my Gran had told me during the reading and I kept my vigilance up. I wasn't going to ever let my guard down around witches ever again. But there was no telling if Antonia's spirit would be back any time soon, and the only good thing was that Marnie herself seemed subdued. It would give me the opportunity to retreat and head home. So that's what I did, thankful that I hadn't gone too far.

* * *

><p><em><span>15 minutes later<span>_

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Helen's voice was full of disbelief as we stood together in the front hallway with Alec, Gabriel and Eric as she stared at me with wide eyes after I had just confessed what had gone down out there on the road with Antonia. I hadn't stopped running until I reached the front porch and the moment I burst through the door, I had become a blubbering idiot. Helen was the first to reach me when I came in and I wasn't sure how she was able to understand me as I told her what Antonia had told me in our conversation as well as how I fought her back, but somehow Helen was able to take it in and she reacted in the exact way that I thought she would. "Antonia was out there just wandering around and you ran into her? Holy fuck you could have been hurt."

"The thought had occurred to me only after I was running back here." I admitted to the brief feeling of fear that had come over me when I was in retreat from her and I realized just how differently things could have ended had I not reacted so quickly. But I couldn't dwell on that or I would have nightmares. "But somehow, when I blasted her off her feet, Antonia's spirit left Marnie's body. And it gave me the chance to get away without delay."

"You got lucky, if it hadn't worked out like that, then you would have pissed off Antonia royally." Alec pointed out, his face was probably the most dark out of them all as he had been the one to encounter Antonia when she was alive and it didn't look like he enjoyed knowing she was so near. He scratched his head with one hand before saying. "And she referred to the incident at the time of her death? When she had all those vampires come out into the sun?"

"Yea, she said it was retaliation for what had been done to her by the vampires in her time." I told him, shuddering at that part of the conversation as it had been the most chilling. "And then she said if she did it again, she would burn me along with you guys if could."

"That bitch." Eric growled from the back of the group, speaking up for the first time since I arrived back home and I watched as he slammed his fist into the wall. "I want to go after her right now."

"No we can't do that, if she sees you again then she could do more damage then before." I shot back, appreciating him getting angry and protective even after I had shut him down on the intimacy front. But we couldn't just react without thinking. I shook my head. "No, we have to call Bill and get the others here right away. We can't do anything without running this passed the King first."

"Bullshit! I want to kill the bitch." Eric exclaimed, flashing over to me and yanking me to his side before I could even think to step away. "She threatened my wife and all vampires. I will have her head on a silver platter."

"No, Allison's right. We should contact the King first." Gabriel became the voice of reason right then, stepping forward with a shake of his head. "It's the only way..."

_30 minutes later..._

"I cannot believe this shit!" Bill slammed his fist down on the dining room table, startling the vampires with his dark and vicious tone and causing Sookie and I to jump in our seats before calming down long enough to hear Bill go on with what he was saying. He had only been able to react with one sentence after Helen, Gabriel and Alec had told him what had occurred with Antonia and the others after arriving here under 30 minutes had been in an angry frenzy at her appearance on the road by my house. But Bill was still in control even though he was the youngest male vampire in the house. "She actually intended to stalk these roads until she found you and Eric. And then she went ahead and threaten all vampires with exposure to the sun. I won't allow this."

"So what are we going to do?" I questioned, looking at my cousin in law earnestly and trying to quench the feeling of impending doom that had started to swell when I had left to make the calls to the others. Eric sat next to me, his arm never leaving my waist the entire time since I had come back to the house. "If she is serious about threatening to draw the vampires out into the sun again, how are we going to stop it."

"Well we can't do anything drastic right now because it will take careful planning and dawn is only a few hours off. So we have to hold off on a more violent reaction. We have to think about protecting ourselves." Bill tapped his fingers to his chin, his eyes suggesting that he was deep in thought and for once no one dared to say anything in the silence that followed. Not even Pam who was sitting in the farthest seat away with a black veil covering her rotting face. Bill looked around the table at each face, including Sookie and I and then he said. "I'm going to send out an order for all vampires to chain themselves with silver before going to rest for the day and to take as many extra precautions as possible."

"And all of you guys should stay here at the house." I announced to the table, not liking the idea of having so many imprisoned vampires in my house when there was going to be a spell happening to draw them out into the day light and who knows what else the spell could do to them. But they were my friends and family and I would do whatever I had to do or that was in my power to keep them safe. "The basement is light tight and it's probably the safest place to be right now."

"I think that's the best idea, at least then everyone will be together and we wont have to worry about any one anywhere else." Sookie nodded, backing me up with a confident smile even though her eyes showed concern. "And I'll stay here with Allie in case something goes wrong."

"I still don't like the idea of you two being here alone with a basement full of vampires being affected by a spell. Who knows what it will make us do? We might hurt you girls without meaning to." Bill pointed out, looking at Sookie as he said this and I could see the devotion in his eyes as he expressed his worry for our safety but mostly for her. It was the way Eric would have looked at me had he been himself. Bill reached for Sookie's hand on the table top and said. "I would feel better you had some extra reinforcements during the day."

"Well..." Sookie turned her head away from her husband and looked directly at me like she was trying to convey something silently. I couldn't understand what she was trying to tell me until she spoke again. "I might have an idea of someone who can help us..."

* * *

><p><em><span>40 minutes later<span>_

"Well well, we meet again under fabulous circumstances. This is speaking wonders about our friendship." Alcide's laughing voice came at me little over half an hour later as I looked up from my spot on the front porch where I had been waiting for him and grinned when I found the tall Were stepping out of his pickup truck with a welcoming wave in my direction. I stood up excitedly, oddly thrilled at seeing him after what had already happened tonight. When Sookie had said she knew who to call to help us during the day, I knew exactly who she was referring to. And now as Alcide made his way over to me, I couldn't help but go out to meet him with a grin of my own and when we came within distance of each other, I was drawn into his arms before I could protest and it was only when he was hugging me that I realized this was exactly what I needed all along. He let me go, holding me by the shoulders as he stared down at me. "So...you've gotten yourself into trouble again..."

"Hey, this wasn't my fault. I didn't go out looking to start a fight. She was the one who planned on confronting me." I shot back, pushing his hands off me as I rolled my eyes, unable to even frown in his presence right now. Alcide, although very new to my life, was one of those people who I just knew would pick up my mood when I needed him too. And tonight was one of those nights. "And yes, I might have said some things that I shouldn't have, but if I didn't then I wouldn't have found out what she planned to do."

"Yes, Sookie did explain to me what this witch might be trying to do. And I brought as much silver as I could find." Alcide motioned with his large hand to the back of his truck that was almost filled to the brim with piles of silver chains of varying thickness. He turned back to me and I could see in his eyes that even though he was here to help us, he wouldn't be all that upset if the vampires were attacked. But at least he kept that opinion silent. "So now that I'm here, do I need to report to your King?"

"He's not my king. He's Louisiana's vampire King. But yes, he does want to speak to you." I explained, nodding to the closed front door door and knowing the others were gathered in the dinning room still waiting for Alcide's arrival. "I think he wants to thank you."

"For what?" Alcide frowned, looking confused as he followed me towards the front of the house with his face turned towards me. "I'm just helping to silver a bunch of fangers down for the day."

"To Bill, that deserves a thanks since it will ensure their survival for the day." I tried to tell him, pushing open the door and entered the house. I heard the conversation in the nearby room cease when Alcide appeared behind me in the doorway and I could practically feel the tension rolling off of everyone in the room but I tried my best to ignore it. Someone needed to keep a cool head. "Bill, you know Alcide..."

"Yes, I remember you." Bill replied, holding out his hand politely even though I saw his nose wrinkle in disgust when he laid eyes on Alcide. I guess the stories of vampires and werewolves not liking each other hadn't changed at all from the past. After Alcide had shaken his hand for a few seconds, Bill dropped it and said. "Sookie said she has explained the situation and I want to thank you for staying with the girls for the day. We all thank you."

"I don't." Eric huffed from his chair, close to me as his eyes peered around my body and over to Alcide who stood there not showing the slightest apprehension even when Eric got to his feet to stare him down. "I don't thank him and I don't want him here."

"Well tough shit vampire, I am here and you can't do anything about it." Alcide shot back, glaring into Eric's eyes as if there was no one else there in the room to stop him from throwing a punch if he wanted to. "You should be grateful I am trying to save your ass."

"Who asked you to?" Eric snapped, his hands flashing up to shove Alcide hard in the chest, enough to send the Were stumbling backwards and bring the others to their feet. Eric looked like he was willing to go again, but I quickly stepped in his path to cut off any further physical interaction.

"Eric, knock it off." I order, trying to keep my voice steady and confident but it was hard when I was standing in front of a very angry looking vampire who looked like he would shove me aside if he wanted to get at Alcide hard enough. I held my hands up at him, prepared to blast him away if I had to. "We can't have fighting right now..."

"I agree, you need to behave." Godric spoke up, appearing at Eric's side with a single hand on his shoulder as well as a stern look on his face. "Do not make me command you."

"He started it by coming here." Eric grumbled, looking at the way I stood defensively in front of Alcide but he did back down despite the glare he kept up on his face.

"Look, we should just get down to the basement and start chaining ourselves up now so we're ready. Dawn is only 2 hours away." Louie spoke up from the back of the group, his age and tone playing a part in what we did next as he started moving towards the basement door. "We don't want to be caught off guard."

"He's right, everyone down to the basement." Bill ordered as sternly as he could before pointing to Alcide, Sookie and I. "You three obviously will handle the silver. And make sure its as secure as possible."

"Trust me, that won't be a problem." Alcide assured Bill with a smirk, looking over his shoulder to where Godric was having to drag away a stubborn looking Eric who was practically shooting daggers at Alcide with his eyes as he disappeared downstairs. Bill followed after them as Sookie and I went with Alcide back outside to start bringing in the piles of silver. And the moment the three of us were alone, Alcide couldn't help but say. "Oh chaining up a bunch of vampires is a dream come true for me."

* * *

><p><em><span>10 minutes later<span>_

"Fuck that stings like a bitch."

"Shut your mouth vampire, or I'll stuff this chain in your mouth and you'll really be complaining."

"Don't you dare even think about it. I could kill you within 2 seconds before you even realized what was happening."

"Yea, your threats have had so much follow through..."

"Well they seem to be getting along famously aren't they?" Godric asked me teasingly, referring to the battle between Alcide and Eric as I draped another line of silver across his throat before attaching it to the wall behind him. It was very weird to have to be chaining up my best friend for his own safety when it was giving me flashbacks of the time when he was down here detoxing. I saw him send me an apologetic smile, like he knew what I was thinking. "Don't worry, it will all turn out alright."

"Not if Eric continues to put up a fight." I grumbled, standing back to study him to make sure I had put silver on the right parts of his body to keep him secure and nodded behind me. "He is the only not cooperating with this."

"Are you really surprised? It is Eric after all, even if he doesn't remember anything." Godric chuckled, in a fairly good mood for having his own free will taken from him for the day. He rattled his chains as he struggled to find a more comfortable position as he watched with me as Alcide stood across the room attempting to silver Eric to the bed but without much luck. The others were all chained and silvered and were trying to keep their gasps of pain to a minimum. But Eric was making a fuss every time Alcide came at him with the heavy silver. And Godric seemed to find this amusing. "It's amazing how he acts like his old self even without his memories."

"Fuck you Werewolf, you'll never lay your hands on me." Eric shouted fiercely, gaining the attention of all the vampires in the room. Sookie had been finishing up with the silver on Bill when she stopped and our eyes met across the dark room. Eric and Alcide were now standing a few feet apart from each other, both of them standing up straight like they were ready to fight each other. "Try it again and I will not hesitate to..."

"Oh for God Sakes, I'll do it." I snapped, leaving Godric's side and stomping across the room to where Alcide stood and snatched the silver from his hands before he could stop me. He sent Eric one more glare before stepping back away from us as I face my husband. "Get on the bed and shut up."

"Enticing me into bed in front of all these people? Ok, I'm cool with that." Eric replied suggestively, looking like his old self as he did what I said and climbed onto the large bed and laid down with a playful smirk. All traces of his anger towards Alcide was gone as I hovered over him with the silver in my hands. "Be gentle now."

"I think you can handle it." I told him, trying not to flinch as I laid the first of the silver across is throat and watched as it showed in his eyes how much it hurt him. I could hear his grunts of discomfort as I wrapped the chains around his wrists and ankles, binding them together as best as I could before securing them to the wall and bed posts before I stood up and looked down at him. I saw the steam rising from the place where the silver met his skin and I felt bad for the pain he was in. But it was for the best if he was going to stay alive, if they were all going to stay alive. I could feel the eyes of everyone on me as I sat beside him on the bed and touched my fingers to his face. Sookie was with Bill, whispering her good byes to him and sneaking in a kiss while the others, along with Alcide were watching my exchange with Eric. I smiled down at him, stroking his cheek gently before saying. "I know you don't remember anything, but I do love you. And I don't want anything to happen to you. Please stay safe."

"You three should go." Bill's voice called out from across the room and both Sookie and I turned our eyes on him attentively. "It will be dawn soon and we should attempt to get some rest before the day begins."

"Ok." I simply nodded, my fingers leaving Eric's face as I stood up and walked towards the door along with Alcide and Sookie and shrugging off any attempt they made to reach out to me. I looked around the room, seeing Alec, Helen and Gabriel chained together while Godric, Louie and Pam were situated near each other and Eric was alone on the bed. They all shared the same expression of pain but there was nothing to be done about that. It was the only thing guaranteed to keep them safe. And as the three of us left the room and made our way upstairs, the only thing I could think of to say was. "This better work or else I'm going to be really pissed off."

* * *

><p><em><span>1 hour later<span>_

I was sitting alone in the living room on the floor in front of the fire when Alcide appeared in the doorway and leaned against the frame with his arms crossed. I had heard his heavy footsteps approaching but I hadn't acknowledged it as I was still coming down from what I had just had to do down in the basement. I didn't relish the idea of chaining up my husband and my friends but it was something I had to do to ensure their safety. And even though I knew it was for the best, seeing the pain on their faces because of the silver I placed on their skin had wounded me and I needed some time to myself before I faced the others. I had settled here in the living room for the past 60 minutes and up until now I had been alone. Sookie was on the phone with Sam and then I think she went back down to the basement to speak with Bill and I didn't know what Alcide was doing but now he was here and was walking across the carpet to me. I had to crane my neck back very far just to look at his face being that I was on the floor and he was standing at his full height. And when our eyes met, I could see the conflicted expression there as he stared at me.

"You really care about what happens to those fangers don't you?" He asked me as tactfully as he could manage which wasn't too much being that he really did not like vampires. But he tried to remain neutral as he lowered himself to the ground next to me and sighed. "I mean, I saw the look on your face down in the basement and its the same as the one on your face now. You're worried, aren't you?"

"Of course I'm worried. How can I not be? Antonia could possibly draw them all out into the sun in a few hours time and kill them all. I think I have every right to be worried." I replied, turning my head to look at him and marveled at the sheer size of him. I was use to it being that Eric was just as tall but Alcide was so different compared to my husband. Despite his size, by nature I knew he was this sweet and nice guy who could be fiercely protective of what he cared about. So talking to him was easier then I expected. "They are all my friends in some way or another. Eric and Bill are my family. I don't want anything to happen to them. If it were your family, you would feel the same."

"My kind wouldn't get mixed up with a bunch of witches." He retorted with a frown, bringing a darkness to his face that I wasn't use to seeing yet. He brought on leg up at an angle so he could prop his arm on his knee before he said. "My family all belong to the same pack and protect our own kind without going out to look for trouble elsewhere."

"Those vampires didn't go out asking for this to happen. Some crazy witch ghost with a grudge to settle decided to possess another witch just to get revenge on something that happened a few hundred years ago. And it just so happened that she chose to start trouble with my group." I explained, running my hands through my hair and wincing when my fingers hit a knot. I had been feeling frantic for the better part of the night and this conversation wasn't really doing anything to help calm me down. I glanced at Alcide curiously. "You said your kind wouldn't get mixed up in any of this. But I'm in the middle of it. Are you suggesting that I'm crazy for who I chose to be around? That I'm asking for this?"

"Not at all, I just think that sometimes nice girls get mixed up with the wrong people that's it." He quickly said, his face showing that he didn't mean to offend me in any way. "And I think you're one of those nice girls, but you also can't help who you are drawn to. You can't help who you want to be friends with or who you love."

"No you can't." I shook my head, knowing I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I felt a connection to every supernatural being in my life and it didn't matter to me what they were. As long as they treated me well and stood by me then that was all that mattered. "And besides, it's not like I'm a normal human girl. And even if I was, I don't judge people based on what they are, if that were the case then I wouldn't be friends with you or the vampires or married to Eric. I judge them based on their treatment of me. I think that should be done for everyone."

"Sometimes I think women want to believe there is good in everyone but there isn't. You should stick to what you know, and what's known is vampires are bad news. They are always going to attract trouble of some kind." Alcide pointed out, making his opinion known to me as gently as possible which I did appreciate. He wasn't going to just abandon how he felt about this just because I was in trouble and needed his help. But he clearly wasn't going to be a jackass about it. "This is why Weres tend to stick with their own kind. We don't like to get dragged out into the middle of this kind of shit."

"So then why are you here? Why did you come to help me when you feel that way?" I questioned, looking at him with curiosity filling me up on the inside so much so that I knew it was showing on the outside. "If you are serious about sticking to your own kind then why did you put yourself in the middle of this trouble that is brewing? Why didn't you just stay out of it and let us deal with it on our own?"

"Because despite how I feel about vampires, I couldn't stand back and do nothing. Not when I knew you were in trouble." Alcide admitted with such a look on his face that I had to drop my gaze as my cheeks flamed red. "I feel drawn to you and I didn't want you to get hurt when all this is going on. Not when I could do something to help."

"Thank you." I couldn't stop the smile that appeared across my lips in that instant. There were very few other people I could count on right now when most of that support system was chained up in the basement. "Seriously, thank you for doing this."

"You don't have to keep saying that you know. I know you're grateful, I can sense it." He shot me a grin of his own, warming me on the inside for the first time in a while. "And I'm glad to be helping you."

"You're a very sweet man for doing this. I know, it's not easy for you to be around so many vampires, but I appreciate you putting that aside to help me." I wanted to reach out and squeeze his arm in gratitude but I held back. "Even if we are basically strangers."

"I think at this point we can stop using the term strangers and just say we're friends. I have a feeling we will be thrown together a lot more so it seems pointless to not call ourselves friends." Alcide said with a twinkle in his eye, putting me more at ease despite the impending arrival of the sun that was not that far off. "I'm here for you whenever you need me."

"I'm glad you're here." I was touched that he would put himself up for grabs so easily whenever I could need him even if it involved vampires. I knew my good feeling about him was right when he said this and for a reason I couldn't exactly pinpoint, I just knew he would never let me down. I was going to tell him that when my hair slipped down and fell in front of my eyes and I just laughed. "Stupid hair..."

"Here, let me." Alcide said when I went to push it back for myself but he beat me to it. His large hand reached out towards my face, his fingers brushing back the long strand from my eyes and tucked it behind my ear just as his hand curled around the outside of my cheek and he left it there. His dark eyes stared into mine as that twinkle reappeared in them. "There, all done."

He should have dropped his hand right then and there but he didn't. He left his fingers right up against my cheek, like he wanted to keep on feeling my skin on his for as long as I would allow it. He didn't say anything after that, he just sat there looking at me with this oddly intense look in his eyes that I couldn't decipher. But a minute later I realized what it was that I was seeing. It was a look of wanting, he wanted me. I could tell by the frantic pacing of his thoughts and how loudly and clearly they were coming through to me. The way he touched me, the way he was looking at me, I could tell he wanted to kiss me. I could practically see it playing out in his mind. And for a second I was sure that I actually saw him start to lean in towards me...

"So everything is secure for the day time hours and Bill is certain that all the other vampires in the area will follow his order as well. So we have nothing to worry about." Sookie's voice drove us apart as she walked into the room and Alcide immediately dropped his hand from my face. But my cousin didn't seem to notice anything odd as she joined us on the floor and held her hands out to the fire. "We did what we were suppose to do and there is no reason to think it won't turn out ok."

"That's good. That's really good." Alcide fumbled over his words, obviously trying to regain his composure but only I could tell why that was. He glanced at me once before setting his eyes on Sookie. "So what do we do now?"

"Now we wait for the sun to come." I answered for them both, turning to look out the nearby window to the sky that was starting to lighten up and I shivered. It was going to be a long day, a long day filled with worry and fear. A day that we were being forced to endure. I sighed heavily and looked at Alcide and Sookie separately before setting my chin on my knees. "And we hope that they all make it through the day."

**A/N: So allie and Antonia had a confrontation, the vampire need to chain themselves up for the day and Alcide is there to lend a hand to all...and is it just me, or is there som sexual tension brewing from Alcide for Allie? Anyway, lots to expect from the next chapter...the vampires face a long day and not everyone remains under cover, at least two vampires go out into the sun...stay tuned to see who survives.**


	12. The harsh light of day

**Chapter 12 The harsh light of day**

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.!"

"What the hell?" I woke up with a start at the sound of the screaming coming from what seemed like a place far away. But when I was able to blink my eyes and shake my head free of the haze that came from sleep, I was able to see that I was still in the living room where I had been when I fell asleep in the first place and that had been right before dawn. Which meant now it was officially morning and I saw through the window that the sun was shinning brightly into the room. I was about about to jump to my feet when I felt a large hand clamp down on my arm. "Get off me..."

"Calm down, you're still half asleep you crazy girl." Alcide's deep voice came from behind me and I looked over the back of the couch to find the tall Were standing there with a bemused smile on his face. He let go of my arm, coming around the side the couch and sat down beside me, his presence seeming to shock me out of the last little bits of sleep I held on to as I stared at him. I had almost forgotten he had been there when I fell under. He propped his arm up on the back of the couch, his chin in his hand as he said. "Nice hair."

"Fuck off." I snapped, feeling my face tighten as I ran my fingers through my loose hair to comb out the knots and make it look presentable before I sent a frown at him. "How can you be so casual when there are a bunch of vampires screaming blood murder down in the basement?"

"I don't care about them, that's how I can be in a good mood." He said with a wave of his free hand as if we were discussing nothing more important then the weather outside. He seemed perfectly at ease despite the sounds of Eric and the others screaming in pain in the room below us. "And besides, I know it's going to be fine. It's only the spell starting and they are all secure for the day. So all we have to do is wait it out."

"You make it sound so easy, it must be a wolf thing." I grumbled, hating that he could be sitting here so calmly while my friends and loved ones were fighting against a spell in the basement. But he had always made it clear to me that he hated vampires so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that he didn't care what happened to them. "How long have you been awake?"

" I never went to sleep. I tried to but I guess I wasn't as worn out as you and your cousin." He explained, running his fingers through his own hair, messing up the dark strands slightly as he looked at me. "Sookie's in the kitchen making something to eat. You want anything?"

"Maybe some..." I began to answer him but I was cut off by another round of screaming, only this time one voice rang out above the rest and it was Eric's. Hearing him yell and make so much noise from all the pain he was in made me shrink back against the couch and shook my head. "I think I'll pass on the food for now. Listening to Eric scream is making me nauseous."

"You really care about him don't you?" Alcide asked, his voice filling with the type of wonder that suggested he had been wondering this since the day we had met each other. And when my head shot over to look at him, he held his hands up defensively. "I mean, I know he's your husband and all but I guess its still weird for me to think of someone like you being attached to a thing like him."

"He's not a thing, he's a person. He's a person even though he's a vampire and even though you hate that. And I love him." I frowned, feeling like this wasn't the first or the last time I would be defending my love for Eric to a non human or vampire. It was very much reminiscent of my early conversations with Sam, back when the relationship was still new. And remembering how that had turned out made me want to shut down this conversation right away. "And if you can't stand being in the same room with someone like me, then you're free to leave."

"I'm not going anywhere, I promised to help you and I'm going to stick by that. No matter what my personal feelings are about the subjects involved." He stated stubbornly, setting his eyes right on my face so I got how strongly he was trying to convey this. I knew he would stick by me despite how he felt about the vampires. But if he was going to keep questioning how I felt and basically bad mouthing Eric, then he might as well leave. "Look just ignore me when I talk like this, I don't mean to offend you when I say things like that. I just have a grudge of sorts against your vampire in particular..."

"Yea, I know your history with Eric. Sookie filled me in and I understand where you're..." I wanted to go on and tell him that I wasn't as mad as he thought I probably was. But I never got to finish my sentence because I was interrupted again by another shout from the room downstairs. Only this time it wasn't Eric. It was Alec.

"Helen no!"

* * *

><p><em><span>Down in the basement<span>_

"Helen, stop it right now!"

"You have to fight it. You can't go into the sun. It won't take long to kill you at your age. Please fight."

"You have to resist it, you have to. This is what that witch wants, she wants you to die. Don't give her the satisfaction."

"Stop struggling, I know it's hard but stop it!"

Helen listened to the pleas of her progeny, her brother, Godric and even Louie as they begged her to find the strength somewhere deep inside of her to stop her fight against the chains that bound her to the wall. But as much as she wanted to listen to them, her body was no longer under her control as she fought and twisted until she started feeling a give in the painful metal right before she managed to twist her body once more and completely yank herself free of the silver. She fell to the floor, hearing the sounds of the other yelling in protest at her escape and for just a second, she lay there hoping the pain would go away and she could somehow magically force herself back over to that wall. But it was precisely magic that was keeping her from doing it as she was suddenly brought to her feet and herded towards the door that she easily tore open and left the others behind screaming out for her return. Every step she took to the main floor was spent trying to take two steps back but nothing helped and she soon found herself bursting through the door at the top of the stairs and coming face to face with Allison, Sookie and the Werewolf Alcide.

"Helen, you need to get back downstairs. It's for your own good." Allison was the first to address her, stepping in her path with her hands raised like she was going to actually try to fight her off. But a quick movement of Helen's own hand sent the smaller girl flying towards the floor to her left where she skidded across the tile and hit the nearby wall.

"Please forgive me, this is not of my own doing." Helen begged the girl, feeling horrid for what she had done even as she moved forward to the front door and found her path blocked by Sookie and Alcide. She didn't want to hurt them, well maybe she wanted to hurt the wolf. But they had all been friends to her and if she could have resisted hurting them then she would have. But nothing could have stopped her from charging at them, sending both the Were and the partial Fae flying in opposite directions before she shot towards the door, her path clear. "I'm so sorry, I never meant to hurt any of you."

Nothing stopped her after that from flinging the door open and stepping right out into the sun light filled front yard. At first it didn't hurt her, it actually felt kind of warm and she was reminded of how the sun had felt a thousand years ago when she was still just a Faerie. But then in a split second, that glorious feeling changed and she felt the near crippling sensation of her flesh starting to heat up and burn, as if her blood was quickly coming to a boil under her skin. She could hear the yells of her brother and progeny calling for her to keep fighting and to turn back but she couldn't. Her body wasn't letting her and was quite content in standing here with her face raised to the sun as the burns began to spring up on her skin. It wouldn't take long for it to kill her, if she had been a newborn or at least a few hundred years younger then she was, then it would take a while to burn her body. But she was a thousand years old, and at that age it would only take a few minutes for her to meet the true death. And she was just on the verge of looking over her shoulder and yelling out her goodbyes when she felt a heavy force slam into her and knock her to the ground to take her off her feet. It was Alcide. That damn Werewolf had tackled her like a damn football player and somehow managed to actually over power her. She actually wouldn't have had to blame the spell on her fighting back because she probably would have done that on her own free will. But none the less, she struggled against him and tried to hit him wherever she could.

"Alcide, get out of the way." Allison's voice had joined them outside right before Alcide's weight suddenly lifted off of her. Helen made a move to get back out into the open, the spell trying to drag her back into direct sunlight but something happened that was probably not expected. The sound of a gun firing filled her ears before she felt the piercing pain of silver enter her body, sending her falling sideways to the ground and rendering her still. Somehow being shot had forced her to go still and deal with a new kind of pain that shook her to the core. She could see Allison's face hover her before she looked to the side and said. "Quick, she's out for the moment. If you hurry, you can get her back inside and silvered before she really comes to."

"Nice shot by the way." The Were's deep voice commented almost playfully before she suddenly felt herself being hoisted up in the air and flung roughly over the wolf's shoulder before being hurried across the yard. "Hey fanger, I know you can hear me. And if you dare bite me, I will stake you here on the spot."

"You don't scare me you stupid Were." She growled, part of her response being controlled by the spell and partially because she generally did not like wolves. But as he was pulling her back down into the basement, preparing to silver her again that she knew he was going to enjoy immensely, she couldn't help but briefly feel a flash of gratitude for his actions. After all, if he hadn't taken her down and dragged her back down here, then she could have been dead by now. She owed her life to a Werewolf, a freaking Werewolf! She caught his eye as he dropped her on the floor and managed to gruffly say. "Thank you."

"Yea, yea, whatever. Just stay still."

* * *

><p><em><span>20 minutes later<span>_

I was pacing around the living room muttering to myself with my hands tucked under my arms when Alcide appeared in the doorway with his hands in his pockets. But I was so caught up in my own head that I barely even noticed his presence except for a slight nod before going back to trying to calm down my frazzled nerves. I was so on edge from the near disaster that could have been Helen that I hadn't been able to stop moving since we dragged her back inside. Sookie was down there right now keeping an eye on things and I was up here practically digging a rut in the living room from my constant pacing. I wasn't prepared for this spell or this day at all. I thought I had been when we called up Alcide to help us but I never took into account that one of the vampires may actually break loose and get out. And even though it was over and everything was calm for the moment, I just couldn't seem to find peace within myself or breathe and I worried that it wouldn't happen until the sun went down and the vampires were no longer in danger. And that was still a long ways off and I wasn't sure I could make it until then. I was going to go insane before, at least that's how I felt and perhaps that was the reason that Alcide finally spoke up.

"Alright, you need to calm down before you give yourself a heart attack."Alcide pointed out with a hint of amusement in his voice, so much so that I stopped in my tracks and spun around to face him but he was already this and had his hands on my shoulders before I could move back. "Look, I put extra silver on the older vamps since they have more strength. It's going to be..."

"I swear, if you say it's going to be fine then I am going to punch you in the face." I warned, trying to sound as threatening as possible but I could tell I wasn't doing a good job of it as his smile was growing bigger by the second which only annoyed me more. I pushed his hands off me, tightly crossing my arms with a glare. "Do you not remember what almost happened 30 minutes ago? Or did it already slip through your stupid Were brain?"

"Wow. You get mean when you're stressed." He observed with an unchanging smile as he just stood back and watched me shoot him looks that did nothing to deter him from his mood. "Have you always been like this? Or is it a change that came once you married the fanger?"

"Don't be funny. This is not the time to be cracking jokes." I retorted rudely, hating that I was being this way but I wasn't able to reign it in just yet. I felt like I was being torn in a million different directions from the stress of this day and Alcide was only trying to help. But I felt like ripping my hair out. I uncrossed my arms, bringing my hands up to the side of my head with a groan. "I feel like I'm going insane."

"It's a crazy day, go easy on yourself." He told me, his smile still in place as he walked over and reached out for me, his hands wrapping around my wrists and pulling them down so we were looking at each other. "And trust me, you're not crazy. I've seen crazy and you are not even close."

"Thanks, that's sweet." I managed to send him a smile, it wasn't a big smile but at least it was a real one which was the best I could do considering the circumstances. And I was grateful for his presence right now, somehow he was the one to get me to calm down whenever something crazy was going on. He just gave off this vibe of warmth and safety and with everything going on, I gravitated towards that. After all, if there was ever a time I needed comfort then this was it. I looked up at him. "Have I mentioned how glad I am that you're here?"

"It's been like an hour since you last said that which I think is an all new record for you." He teased, sitting himself down on the arm of the sofa and pulled me close to him and even with him sitting he was still taller then me. "But I know you're grateful, you don't have to keep saying it for it to sink in. I won't forget."

"Then at least let me tell you how wonderful you are for putting up with all this craziness." I shook my head, flooded with the notion that I was dragging him into this business yet again. He didn't have to accept but he had come willingly and I don't think there was enough times I could say thank you. "I mean, I know you don't like vampires but you still came here to help and you're dealing with my rudeness and extreme lack of manners and I feel bad for that and..."

"Stop apologizing." He ordered, taking my face in between his hands so I would stop talking and be silent. "You needed help and I came to help. That's all. And you're not being as rude as you think."

"That's because you're the sweetest guy ever." I grumbled, looking down at my feet right then because I felt like he was making my behavior sound more acceptable then it was. I liked Alcide and I knew he would be a good friend to me and part of being a friend was taking the bad things with the good. But he had already done so much and he didn't have to brush off my rudeness to make me think he was being a good guy. I already knew that. "And here I thought that Werewolves couldn't be good."

"Not all of us are, but some can be the exception to the rule." He grinned, lifting up my face with one hand so our eyes locked together. "And I like to think I'm the exception..."

"Trust me you are." I interrupted, needing him to know that I knew that for some reason.

"I know I am. I don't need assurance." He nodded but I could see that my statement had pleased him based on the surge of pride that went through him just know. His hand left my face and settled into a fist on his leg so that he was leaning towards me. "But I have to say, I like to hear it coming from you."

"Yea, I kind of sensed that." I felt my cheeks redden from the look he was giving me. I knew he meant more behind his words then he was actually saying, and that didn't even add up to what I was getting in flashes from his thoughts. That combined with how close we were standing to each other, it made me very uncomfortable because I knew what he was hoping would happen. But then again, I felt calm being here with him, calm for the first time since I woke up. And yet I knew I should be pulling back and putting distance between us. It wasn't him I wanted so close where I could reach out and wrap my arms around him, it was my husband. But Eric wasn't with me, at least not in the way I wanted him to be. And remembering that made the tears spring to my eyes and I was able to step back finally and turn my head away. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm crying."

"You're scared and stressed and you have been for a while now. Of course you're going to be prone to tears." He explained, his hand going to my elbow so I had no choice but to look at him, expecting to see frown on his face. No man was ever ok with a girl crying in front of him, especially Eric. But when I looked at Alcide, he was only just looking at me like he was before. I felt a tug on my arm. "Come here."

I should have resisted, should have pulled back or at least said I was fine. But I didn't. I just allowed him to pull me closer to him then ever before and right into his arms so my face was right on the skin of his chest where his flannel shirt didn't cover. I felt the warmth instantly, warming me all over as his arms tightened around my small frame and he just held me there. He didn't say anything and he didn't think anything, he just held me tightly with his chin resting lightly on top of my head. I couldn't deny it, I felt truly at ease for the first time in forever and it was weird that I found it in the arms of another man, another man who I just so happened to know was starting to develop some kind of attraction to me. I just sensed it in the way he was rubbing his hands up and down my back, the way his body shifted from time to time as if he was struggling to hold himself back from doing something he shouldn't even be thinking of doing..

_"Damn it, damn it, damn it. I should not be thinking of her this way. Not when she is married and needs me to help her. She needs me as a friend and I have to stop constantly thinking about what could happen if she wasn't married..."_

_"...but she's so beautiful. And sweet, and it's so hard to remember that she is already taken. Especially when I'm holding her like this. It feels so natural to me, more so then with any other woman..."_

_"..if only I could just give in to what I want to do, if only I could kiss..."_

"You know what? I think I'm ok right now." I somehow managed to get out as I back tracked out of Alcide's mind and practically scrambled out of his arms so we were no longer touching. I saw the confused frown on his face and I knew he wasn't aware that I had just heard his desires for me. And I preferred to keep it that way, I didn't want things to get weird. "Thanks for comforting me, I needed it."

"Any time." He replied, his hands resting on his knees as he watched me curiously with something akin to regret in his eyes and I knew it was because he hadn't kissed me like he wanted to do. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Oh yea, for now I am perfectly ok..."

* * *

><p><em><span>2 hours later<span>_

I was just about to fall asleep when it happened again. And it happened so fast that I almost wasn't sure it was what I was seeing.

After Alcide had comforted me, Sookie came back up from the basement to join us again. And I was able to regain a sense of control over myself so I wasn't acting like a crazy person. Alcide was doing the same and it was back to feeling like normal between us, rather then the way it was before. The three of us had been been sitting together on the couch for the past few hours while everything seemed ok. And in fact, it was so calm and uneventful that I even found myself starting to nod off against Alcide's shoulder. I guess I was more tired then I thought I was and just as my eyes were fluttering closed, I felt Alcide shift so I was lying against him more comfortably with his arm around my shoulders. I was so at peace that I didn't even think to push him away and was just drifting off when I heard a loud bang that shot me back to my feet feeling slightly disoriented.

"Shit, I think it was Gabriel that got loose this time." Sookie was the first to speak leading the way to the door way where we all peeked into the hallway and saw the basement door had indeed been smashed open. Sookie looked back at us worriedly. "We need to go..."

"I'll get him." Alcide interrupted, his eyes flaring up with determination and he was already heading to the back door where we could all hear Gabriel out in the yard screaming. Alcide looked back at us and said. "You two stay here."

"I'm going with him. You stay here." I ordered my cousin before shooting away through the house after him without a second thought. I burst into the back yard and out into the sun light that was so bright I had to shield my eyes just so I could see in front of me. I found Alcide standing a few feet to my right with his arms raised and his hands curled. I frowned. "What are you doing just standing there? Why aren't you grabbing him?"

"I tried to, but every time I got close to him he moved away." Alcide growled, glaring across the yard at Gabriel who was standing as still as a rock with his arms outstretched and his eyes closed like he was welcoming the sun. I could already see the smoke rising from his skin as well as the smell of burning flesh that wrinkled my nose. Alcide looked down at me with a frown. "I told you to stay inside."

"And obviously I didn't listen." I shot back, moving forward to Gabriel hoping to reach him before he got too severely burned. But I had barely gotten within two feet of him before he shot away to another spot just out of reach. I frowned, moving my feet again to where he stood with his hands still clenched into fists. I was within grabbing distance before he shot away again before I could get a hold of him. "Gabriel, stop moving and let us help you."

"I...I can't..." His teeth chattered from pain as his eyes turned to look at me and I could see just how much pain he was in. It took all I had not to run away screaming when I saw how his body shook roughly and that was nothing compared to how loudly his thoughts were screaming at me. It was torture to stand there looking at him and knowing I couldn't help him when he was being forced to meet his death. I could feel my heart sinking further when he said. "I have to burn...she wants me to burn.."

"You can't talk him out of it..."Alcide told me when he caught up with me in the middle of the yard and his hand went instinctively to pull me back to his side. "The spell is keeping him from being logical."

"I don't have any more silver to shoot him like I did with Helen. How are we suppose to subdue him to get him back inside?" I demanded, looking at Gabriel's skin as it started to sizzle and turn dark, rivers of red leaking out of his ears and I felt my heart practically plummet to my feet. "He's going to..."

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH." My voice was cut off by this horrible scream coming from the yard in front of me, stopping me from speaking any more.

Gabriel had moved even further away, only this time it didn't look like he was going to be moving again as he had now been brought down to his knees just as his pale skin was blistering and turning black. He was seconds away from literally bursting into flames, he was dying right before our eyes and if we didn't get him back inside then we would lose him. Luckily Alcide noticed this and was able to seize the opportunity to reach out and grab the vampire by the shoulder before he started yanking him across the yard. Thank God he was a werewolf because no other being would have had the strength to pull a vampire back inside the house. But Alcide managed it without a sweat and it was only when we were inside with the door slamming shut behind us that I was able to breathe. But that didn't mean trouble was over. We still had to get Gabriel back down to the basement and silvered up again before we could even allow our minds to relax. We passed by Sookie on our way to the basement and I could see the expression on her face when she saw Gabriel that she would not be following us into the basement. This sight reminded her too much of when Bill had nearly met the sun and I barely had a moment to send her a reassuring look before Alcide tossed Gabriel over his shoulder and we disappeared down to the basement together.

"Oh my God is he alive?" Helen's voice was the first to speak up when we entered the resting area and Alcide dropped Gabriel to the floor by the spot next to the wall where he had been before he broke free. The others were awake, still straining to get loose from their chains but Alcide had made sure that they couldn't get loose and even though Helen was struggling like a wildcat, her expression showed just how scared she had been for her brother. Her teeth gritted through the pain of fighting against the spell before she demanded. "Why isn't he moving? Why isn't he healing?"

"He was burned more severely then you. It's going to take more time for him to heal." I told her, watching as Alcide propped Gabriel back against the wall before wrapping the silver around him again while adding more then he had used originally. I was watching him do this when it occurred to me that Gabriel, although had his eyes open, was not healing as he should have been. His grunts of pain came out in haggard breaths as if he were struggling to breath even though he didn't need to. It looked like it was paining him to try and heal himself, he couldn't do it on his own. He needed help and that's when I stood up straight as the notion hit me. "He needs blood..."

"What are you doing?" Alcide growled, appearing at my side and grabbing my wrist just as I slid my sleeve up to expose my skin. He had finished chaining Gabriel and now had a look in his eyes that said he was would chain me up if he had to. "You can't give him blood. I won't..."

"Don't say you won't allow it, it's not your call." I told him, ripping my wrist away from him and backing away before he could even think to grab me again. I saw Eric across the room, muttering something that sounded very territorial but I chose to ignore it, knowing Gabriel needed my help. I stood next to him, watching his eyes lift up to meet mine and held my wrist up so he could see what I meant. "Go ahead, drink. I'm giving you permission to do it..."

"Like hell you are." Eric growled form the bed, rattling his chains to get loose like he wanted kill me for even suggesting it. But his silver was too heavy as Alcide had promised and he couldn't stop me,none of them could. But that all drowned out as I heard the click of fangs right before Gabriel latched on to me roughly and took the first drink of my blood.

It wasn't painful, as I was use to it by now but that didn't mean it was pleasant at all. The only way it was ever an enjoyable experience for me was when it was Eric drinking my blood, this was just a matter of helping a friend. And yet as I stood there and allowed Gabriel to take more from me, I couldn't help but allow my eyes to drift across the room to Alcide where he was watching this exchange with the same frown of disapproval he had worn when he saw me giving Eric my blood the first day we had met. He didn't like it at all, that much I got from the way he stared right at me and by the way his mind was grinding wheels in his brain as he debated whether or not to stop this. He cared, cared so much that it was becoming obvious that it wasn't in a friendly way. He wasn't staring at me like I was just a friend or Sookie's cousin. He was staring at me like how Eric first use to stare at me, like I belonged to him and it was his job to watch over me. We hadn't been around each other all that much and yet he was developing these serious feelings towards...

"Ok Gabriel, that's enough." I told the feeding vampire, patting him roughly on the shoulder when I started feeling light headed. I had been so caught up in what Alcide was thinking that I wasn't paying attention to how much blood was being taken. But now I was and despite my patting and attempts to pull away Gabriel wasn't immediately letting go. I hit him harder. "Gabriel stop..."

"Hey! Let her go, she said that was enough." Alcide showed up behind me, his fist socking Gabriel so hard in the chest that his fangs retracted upon contact and allowed me to finally step back, clutching my wrist with my other hand. "Next time, do as she says."

"Forgive me, I am very sorry." Gabriel managed to say in a semi sincere tone that was a little unconvincing due to the toxicity of my blood. But I knew I had done the right thing when I saw that his face was already almost back to normal. "You're very delicious..."

"So I've been told." I muttered, allowing Alcide to pull me to his side and out the door just as Helen was yelling at me her thanks before they all were strangled with cries of pain again...

_10 minutes later..._

"Are you mad at me?" I asked Alcide a little while later as we sat alone in the dining room with my arm outstretched on the table in front of him as he attempted to clean the messy fang mark as best he could without causing me too much pain. They may have been tiny holes but they hurt like a bitch and the entire time since we had left the basement, he hadn't really spoken to me except to say he was going to bandage me up. And I had just stared at him, watching his expression never wavering and that brought me to the conclusion that he wasn't exactly happy with me. "Because you seem mad."

"I'm not mad...I'm just...confused." He said with a sigh, finally meeting my eyes for the first time since we sat down as he set aside the rubbing alcohol. "I mean, Gabriel wasn't dead. Well actually he is, but he hadn't met the true death. He was just really burned, that's all. He would have healed eventually.."

"Yea, and your point would be what?" I asked with raised eyebrows, glad that he was talking to me but confused as to why he looked so pissed. "Why do you care that I gave him blood?"

"Because you didn't need to save him that way, you didn't need to save him at all." Alcide retorted, gripping the bandage in his hand tightly as his eyes stared right at me, unblinking. "Why do you always have to save everybody?"

"You're referring to the thing with Eric aren't you?" I asked, watching him nod in response and I couldn't help but smile at this. It was sort of cute that he cared so much to get this worked up over nothing. I shrugged with a grin and said. "I don't know why I do things like giving my blood to wounded vampires...maybe it's because I don't like seeing people in pain."

"They're tough, they'll get over it eventually. You don't need to hurt yourself to help them." He grumbled, placing the bandage on my wrist and running his fingers along the edges to make sure it was on securely before he dropped his hands into his lap and looked at me with a shake of his head. "You care too much about everyone."

"And that's a bad thing?" I questioned, taking my arm back to myself and bringing my other hand over the bandage. "Would you be saying this if it were a werewolf I was helping?"

"Of course I would!" He exclaimed in such a way that said he most certainly would not be getting this worked up if it was one of his own kind and more specifically him. I could tell from his thoughts but he had the common courtesy to keep it to himself and just say. "I think it's generous of your to want to help save everyone, but you shouldn't do it at the expense of your own well being."

"I still think you're taking this harder then you should." I threw back, wanting to know how he would respond and when he did, it was in the exact way that I thought.

"Well I am me, I'm a protector and I will react to this situation the same way every time."

* * *

><p><em><span>Later that night<span>_

"We came close, too close to meeting the true death today. We cannot allow it to go for another day. We may not be so lucky next time." Bill's commanding voice spoke out to the room filled with faces later that day once the sun had finally sunk below the horizon. He looked around at all of us, seeing the exhaustion and tension filling every feature and he shook his head wearily. "We will not let ourselves go through this again. We are going to exact our revenge."

I barely listened to Bill as I stared across the table at Eric, who hadn't looked at me since Sookie, Alcide and I had gone down to release all the vampires. He was still angry that I had allowed Gabriel to feed on my blood and he had told me as much as that when I had been the one to remove his silver just minutes earlier. He had wanted to take off as soon as it was safe but Bill had urged us all to go upstairs and gather together so he could speak to us and it took Godric's command for Eric to actually do it. But he had refused to sit near me and I wasn't going to force him and instead sat near Sookie and kept on trying to catch his eyes but he just wasn't cooperating. I sighed and sat back with my hands gripping the chair's arms and wishing that Alcide was still here. At least when he was around he put me in a better mood and right now I was in serious need of an uplift. But he had taken off once we had released the vamps and there was no more use of him. I knew he would have stayed if I had asked him too and his thoughts said he wanted me to ask him to stay, but I hadn't thought of it at the time and now I was regretting it. However, at least Gabriel and Helen kept on shooting me grateful glances and I knew they were still in deep gratitude for what I had done for her progeny. That almost picked up my mood.

"So what exactly are we planning to do now?" Pam spoke up, her face still hidden underneath that black veil but her smirky tone coming through loud and clear. "Sit back and hope it all works out? That is what you've been suggesting we do this whole time."

"Pam..." Godric warned, taking up the authority over her that Eric should have done had he known who the hell he was. But Godric was the next best thing to Eric and most of the time Pam respected him. "Do not start..."

"I mean, maybe if we had done something in the beginning then none of this would have happened. Did you ever think of that?" Pam was clearly not in the mood to be interrupted as she actually threw back her veil to glare at Bill face on, her rotting features making us sit back uneasily. "If we had actually gone ahead and killed them, then Eric never would have been cursed, we wouldn't have all almost died today, and more importantly, they wouldn't have fucked with my face!"

"That was your own fault, I told you not to interfere and you disobeyed me. So that part was not my fault." Bill shot back, obviously not willing to take her crap tonight even less then he was on any normal night. He stood up from his chair and gripped the edges of the table. "And I will not let any other mistakes happen when it pertains to these witches."

"So what is your plan?" Godric asked, trying to direct the conversation back to it's original starting point instead of allowing it to blow up into another argument. "You say we're not going to let this happen for another day. So I assume you mean to take action in a more physical way."

"That's exactly what I mean and when I say physical, I mean we're going to have to fight them." Bill leaned heavy on that last part as if to press upon the seriousness of what he was saying. But we had all been through enough wars together to get where he was going. And once he saw it in all our eyes, he went on. "I will be the one to reach out to them and get this all set up, but the reason I wanted to speak with you all was to let you know where this is heading. So go off for a few hours and recharge in any way you choose. Then meet back here at midnight. I'll explain it more then. Are we clear."

"Clear." It was answer in unison from us all, as we knew that something had to be done and when we all met up again in a few hours time, that something would be put in motion.


	13. I won't walk away

**Chapter 13 I won't walk away**

"I'm mad at you." Eric said to me as he stood in the doorway of our bedroom less then an hour after the others had left, and stared at me with such a look of rage in his eyes that I was almost taken aback by how much he looked like his old self. I sat up from the bed, surprised that he had been the first one to make contact. I had left him alone because I figured he wouldn't want to come near me after what I had done for Gabriel and after the looks Eric had been giving me in the dining room. I watched him leave his post by the doorway, walking across the room with his arms down at his sides before he sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me. "You let another vampire feed on you."

"I had to Eric, he was in pain and he needed my help." I protested, my face frowning at the look he was giving me right now for simply helping a friend. Yes I knew that in the world of vampire politics and mannerisms that no other vampire can feed on a claimed human. But it was for special circumstances and Gabriel didn't force himself on me, I offered my blood to him willingly and it wasn't the first time I had done this. But Eric wouldn't remember that. I looked at him with a shrug. "I was trying to do a good thing. That's just who I am."

"But did this good thing have to involve giving your blood to another vampire?" He snapped, his blue eyes bearing down on me almost possessively. "You're mine, only I'm allowed to..."

"Are you jealous?" I felt the tips of my lips starting to curl upwards into a smile as this idea hit me and for the firs time that day, I actually felt something akin to glee filling me up. "You are aren't you? Oh come on, you know that giving Gabriel my blood doesn't mean I want to be with him..."

"Actually I don't know that. I may not remember who I am or anything about my life, but I do know how vampires operate..." He pointed out with a raised eyebrow, his eyes now filled with an almost wounded look that reached deep inside of me and tugged at my heart strings. "And the giving of blood is a sacred thing, an intimate thing. And if you so willingly did it, then it must mean that..."

"Eric, listen to me..." I moved across the bed, taking a moment to reach out and take his face in between my hands so he was looking at me and only me. It was the first time I had actually been the one to initiate contact between us and it was because even in this state of mind, I needed him to know something very important. "Just because I gave Gabriel blood, doesn't mean I want him. You're the only one I want. You're my husband and I love you. I've always loved you."

"Even now? When I can't remember you or our history?" He asked, staring straight at me with wide eyes, his anger seemingly gone for the moment. He brought one of his hands up to meet mine, curling his fingers over my hand. "You can still love me and only me? No one else?"

"We made vows to always be there for each other through good and bad times. And with us, there will always be bad times because of what we are. But if we can be there for one another in the bad moments, then it makes those rare good times all the more special." I explained, dropping my hands from his face but he held on to my left palm to make sure I didn't scoot away from him and for once, I didn't have any desire to. After all the stress of today and the near deaths of my friends, my defenses were down and I just needed to be with him. I was so relieved that he had made it through the day and I just wanted to take advantage of this time together alone before we were forced to go out there and confront Antonia. No one knew what would happen by the end of tonight and I just wanted to be with my husband and forget all the bad things that were happening around us. I looked up to find Eric looking at me with his head cocked to the side and I couldn't help but move closer so I was on the verge of crawling into his lap. "This is going to sound silly but I miss you."

"But I'm right here." He replied, his face filling with confusion at my statement but that didn't stop him from pulling me closer to him. "How can you miss me if I'm right here in front of you."

"I guess I never wanted to say it out loud this whole time, but I miss everything about you." I felt my cheeks flaming red and I was glad that he couldn't read my mind or else I would be more embarrassed about my thoughts then I already was. But it had been so long since I had let my guard down with him and I didn't want to have to work at it and keeping myself cut off was a lot of work. This was my husband, if there was anyone I could relax with then it was him. I reached up and touched my fingers to his cheek. "I miss you knowing who I am. I miss the intimacy we use to share. I miss you just laying with me in the dark when I try and sleep. I miss even just holding your hand for no reason at all..."

"I can still give you all that if you would let me. Even without my memories." He cut in, removing my hand from his face and with one quick movement, I found myself on my back in the middle of the bed with Eric hovering over me with a slight smirk to his lips. Having him this close and pressed against me the way he was, was causing my heart to pick up its pace rapidly. And he could tell because he pressed his hand over my chest, right over the spot where my heart was. "I can still love you the way you want me to, the way you need me to."

"Then do it..." I whispered, feeling my blood racing through my veins as I stared up at him. I had wanted him to be on top of me nearly every night since this curse happened but I had always resisted because I felt like I was betraying the old Eric. But the old Eric was still in there and sometime soon he was going to be coming back to me. It was only a matter of time. The vampire I had loved and the vampire above me were the same person, worlds away from each other, but still the same person. This was my husband, the love of my life and I needed nothing more then to just be with him. I looked at him again. "Make love to me Eric."

"It would be an honor to." He said, his eyes never leaving mine as he said this before he leaned in and kissed me.

* * *

><p><em><span>Out in the woods<span>_

"Helen, wait up. I need to talk to you." Louie's voice called out to her through the densely situated trees as she made her way further and further into the darkness alone, intending on keeping it that way. She had asked both Gabriel and Alec to leave her be and since they had parted at the house, the three of them had gone separate ways. Except for Louie, he had been hot on her heels from the moment she shot away from the house and he hadn't let up on his pursuit of her in the slightest. Eventually she slowed down upon hearing his voice, partially because she was curious as to what he wanted to say to her and mostly because she knew that he would be able to overtake her if he chose to due to his age. So she came to a stop and turned her eyes to the darkness behind her where she just saw Louie's short blonde hair emerging from the tree line to come over to her. "Why did you take off?"

"Because I wanted to be alone before we were all forced to go back to what will inevitably become a fight to the death." She replied, running her fingers through the ends of her long blonde hair before she sent him a sort of half smile. "But I should have known you wouldn't have let me go off after the day we had."

"How could I? Especially when you and your progeny almost met the true death?" He shot back, moving forward after reminding her of those painful moments before grabbing her hands in between his before she could even think to pull back. "How could I just watch you go off without talking to you?"

"I don't see what there really is to say other then what you just said." Helen shrugged, feeling the same spark coming from contact with him as it did a thousand years ago. She still felt the same for him and she was beginning to suspect that would never change. But the times were different now and there were things beyond their control. That's just how it was now. "Gabriel and I almost met the true death but we didn't. We're both fine and we will continue to be fine. So what else is there to talk about?"

"You're not getting what I'm trying to tell you." Louie said with what looked like a flame of frustration in his eyes and that look alone said that he had probably tried to rehearse this conversation in his head more then once and it wasn't going his way like it had in his thoughts. His hands squeezing hers brought her focus back to him. "Everything that happened today made things clear to me and that's why I came after you just now. I'm tired of playing games."

"I'm still not following." But that was a lie. She knew exactly what he was talking about. After all, only one thing had happened between them that they were both refusing to address the way they should have. Or actually it was more just her who was refusing to acknowledge it. She didn't want to risk hearing something she didn't want to hear. She managed to tug her hands away from him and tucked them under her arms. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't bullshit me, you know I'm referring to our moment out here in the woods. You know, how we made love for the first time in a thousand years?" He stated as more of a question even though there was no way the significance of that night could be lost on her. He narrowed his eyes at her, his blue green orbs holding nothing but seriousness. "I don't know why you are refusing to talk about it, so I will. That moment meant something to me..."

"Louie, come on. Don't go there." She almost begged of him, feeling extremely uncomfortable in her own skin which was very rare for a vampire but she felt it as strongly as anything. "It is what it is..."

"No, let me finish. That night meant more to me then it should have. It wasn't just about the sex, it was about reforging that connection to you. And up until that point, I hadn't been willing to fix it because I was still so mad at you for what you had done. I wasn't willing to forgive you until..." His voice trailed off for a minute as he just looked at her in observation. She knew that look well, it was the look he had given her one of the first nights they had met. A look that said he was looking for some kind of fault within her that he ended up not being able to find. But she knew herself better then he did, she knew her faults and mistakes and she would carry them with her forever. But that didn't seem to matter to him, judging by what he said next. "You almost died today, and I would have lost you without being able to fix what had been broken between us. And I prayed that if you were spared, then I wouldn't waste any more time not being with you..."

"What are you trying to tell me?" She asked, needing him to actually say the words for fear it was different then what she was hoping to hear in her mind. If she was wrong about where he was going with this, then it would wound her terribly. "Just say it already so I know where we..."

"I'm saying that I love you damn it." He exclaimed, flashing forward and grabbing her face in his hands and holding on to her so tightly that she knew she would have no chance of slipping away like before. "I love you. And I don't think I ever stopped. I was just too blinded by my own rage and feelings to admit it before..."

"And now you're not?" She asked, feeling frozen in place by his admission as she was sure she would never again hear him speak those words. He had been so angry by her betrayal and she was certain that nothing she did would ever fix what she had destroyed and she only had her own self to blame for it. But in this moment on this night, as she watched him nod in response to her question, she found her self filling up with a lightness that hadn't been present in hundreds of years. He was serious about what he said, that he wasn't going to waste more time playing games if she was spared from the sun. And here he was proclaiming his love for her again and bringing them back to the beginning where they could make a fresh start. It was almost too good to be true as she looked at him and placed her hands over his. "Do you know how long I've been waiting to hear you say that?"

"I think I have an idea." Louie smirked before dropping his hands to her waist and pulling her close to him for their first honest kiss in a thousand years. And when their lips met, Helen knew that even if she never died, being here with Louie was as close to heaven as she could possibly get.

* * *

><p><em><span>45 minutes later<span>_

"I cannot believe we are having another night like this." Godric mumbled to himself as he stood out in the front yard of Allison and Eric's house with his hands in his pockets and a frown on his face. "We were suppose to be done with all this. And now we are heading into yet another battle. When will all this madness end?"

Godric sighed heavily even though he didn't need to and just stared at the front door of the house. He arrived here just moments ago and due to his excellent hearing, he knew he was the first of the group to come back. And that was a good thing as he was hoping to catch a moment alone with his progeny before they went off to war later tonight. He found that lately he had been having these talks with his child far too often and even though Eric wouldn't remember all those times before, it was still just as tough. And as he headed up the steps and through the front door, he hoped there would come a time when they could all just relax and enjoy time with each other without worrying about what enemy was coming after them next. But right now, a fight was inevitable as these witches had to pay for what they did to Eric and Pam and talking was clearly not going to solve anything.

"Godric?" Eric's voice hit him barely a second after he had passed through the doorway and shut it behind him. Godric wasn't startled as there was not much that could scare him at his age and when he turned his head to the source of where his child's voice was coming from, he found the tall viking vampire sitting in the room right off to the right of the hallway. Eric didn't move from the couch except to turn his head and when their eyes met, his face registered curiosity. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, we're going off to fight a bunch of witches in a few hours time and I just wanted to have a word with you before that happened." Godric explained, smiling at his progeny in an attempt to keep up his own wall so not to allow in the pain from seeing Eric with no recollection of himself. He sat down on the couch next to him and set his hands on his knees. "So, where is Allison? I thought she would be with you right now."

"She's upstairs sleeping. It seems like I exhausted her earlier once we were alone." Eric's face light up and for the briefest of seconds it was like he was his old self when he was talking about his wife and Godric could almost imagine it was like it was just a few weeks prior when everything was perfect and calm. But it was far from perfect. "I have a feeling we did this on a regular basis."

"You and Allison had a very healthy relationship, at least sexually. That's all I will say on that subject." Godric shook his head, unwillingly to go on with this as it made him deftly uncomfortable. Despite his own issues with Allison in the past year or so, he still viewed the young girl as his daughter and he didn't like to even mention her and the word sex in the same sentence even though it was obvious they did it a lot. He crossed his arms and looked at Eric. "It's good that you two reconnected a little bit tonight before the fight. And after what happened today , I just wanted to make sure things were alright with you two. It's why I came back earlier then the others."

"Things weren't a calm starting out as how they were when they ended. But by the end we were on the same page." Eric grinned more to himself and judging by the look on his face it was obvious that he was reliving the last hour in his head and Godric was glad Allison was asleep or else he would never be able to look her in the face. But then Eric's face suddenly turned serious, all playfulness gone from his eyes as he turned to look at him. "You're my maker right? Can I be honest with you about something?"

"Of course you can." Godric nodded, trying not to feel disappointed by the change in Eric's expression. "Go ahead."

"I know I had my memories taken away and I don't remember Allison but I know I love her now. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about." Eric's lips pressed together into a thin line, an old sign that he was about to make a heavy point. "We all came close to dying today, too close. And now that there is a battle about to happen, we might come close to the true death again. And I might be the one to die, and if that happens then I want you to take my place with Allison."

"Wow, I should have seen that one coming. After all, this isn't the first time you have said that to me." Godric frowned, hating that Eric's request now reminded him of the first war with the Dallas coven and how that altercation had ended with Allison's death. But it also was a hopeful statement because it was almost identical to the request the old Eric had made that night which gave Godric hope that his child would regain his memories sooner rather then later. He looked at the taller vampire and smiled. "You've said to me before. A while ago."

"I don't remember it obviously so let's pretend like this is the first time." Eric ordered, his tone more serious then ever before since he was first cursed. "I don't want it to come to that, I don't want any other vampire to be with her, not even you. But if it does come down to it and I do meet the true death tonight, then I don't want her to be alone."

"You're still in there some where." Godric commented with a smile even though he hated having this particular conversation. But at least the one good thing to come of it was that they could possibly have Eric's memories restored at the end of tonight. That was the plus side they had to keep in mind. He looked at his child and smiled. "And do not worry, I will take care of her if you can't."

"Thank you." Eric said before they both lapsed into silence.

* * *

><p><em><span>A few hours later<span>_

"Allison, you need to wake up. It's time."

"What? Time for what exactly?" I asked upon opening my eyes and seeing that I was still in bed like I had been when I had curled up at Eric's side what seemed like only minutes ago. I rolled my head to the right and when I saw that it was nearly midnight, I shot up into a sitting position with the sheets wrapped around my naked body as it suddenly occurred to me what he meant by it being time. I looked over and found Eric sitting in a chair beside the bed, fully dressed and looking like he had just been sitting there watching me for God only knows how long. I felt my cheeks redden both from embarrassment of remembering what we had just done and wanting more and from wasting time being with him by being asleep. Now it was nearly time to go to battle and I wanted to kick myself. "I can't believe I slept this long, you should have woken me up."

"I wanted to watch you sleep, you looked so peaceful like that." He pointed out,leaving the chair and coming over to the bed where he sat on the edge by me and placed his hand on my blanket covered legs. "But I had to wake up, the King is here and so are the others."

"My family and friends are here? Your King is in our house and you let me lay up here naked while they're downstairs? Are you out of your mind?" I felt my jaw fall open at the realization that there was a group of people waiting for us downstairs and I was the only one without clothes on. I felt so dirty that I wanted to curl up and hide, but I didn't have the time to do that. Not when Eric was looking so serious. "Eric what is it?"

"Before I came back up here, I spoke with Bill and he informed me of the decision he made for tonight. He wants to confront Antonia in a nearby graveyard and he definitely plans on doing it to night. He said stalling is not an option." Eric told me, his face drawn tight and dark and so obviously different from the way he had looked at me when we were in bed together. I felt his fingers tighten over my thin leg as he said. "He plans on bringing all of us vampires to back him up since Antonia will bring her coven. He said you and Sookie can join if you want to."

"Well of course I'm going with you guys. There is no way I'm letting you or anyone else go to fight a bunch of witches without me being there. There's just no way." I told him stubbornly, scooting out from between the sheets and hurrying over to the dresser to pull out some clothes. I wasn't even self conscious of the fact that Eric now had a clear view of my body on display for him but that barely even passed through my mind as I yanked on a pair of dark jeans and a dark gray long sleeved shirt. I was just sitting down to pull a comb through my hair when I asked. "What graveyard is this confrontation taking place in?"

"The Shreveport Memorial cemetery." He answered once he had stopped starring at me with those damn eyes of his that gave away every feeling he was feeling. "Do you know that place?"

"Oh, I know it very well." I mumbled, my comb pausing briefly as the memories of what had unfolded there flashed through my head. I hadn't thought about the night I died in months and this would be the first time I was returning to the graveyard since it happened and I certainly wasn't looking forward to it at all. Especially not when there was another battle with disgruntled witches to get through. I tossed my comb on the dresser and looked at him. "I guess we should get down there huh?"

"Yea, we should. But there is just one thing I wanted to say before we go." Eric said, stopping me before I could reach for the doorknob and when I turned to look up at him, I found myself being pulled into his arms and seeing a smile on his face. "I may not remember you the way you want me to, but I know I love you now. I've seen the extent of your kindness and generosity and it makes me love you more then I can understand."

"That's really sweet Eric." I was so touched by his statement that I reached up for his face and brought his forehead down close to mine so I could feel him against me before we went down to face the others. "I love you too."

_20 minutes later..._

"Alright, everyone knows the plan right?" Bill asked out loud to the assembled group in the front hallway who had gone quiet once he had begin to wave his hands in the air. Not even Pam had the nerve to say something sarcastic to him now that we were all about to go off to war since it was what she wanted. Bill looked around at all of us to make sure we were hearing him one last time. "You all stay hidden until I call for you. Understood?"

"Yes." We all answered in unison, shooting glances at one another one last time as we were moments away from leaving the house to face who knew what. And it was then that I took in my surrounding family and friends.

Sookie of course was standing at Bill's side looking both scared and determined and I knew she was thinking that she hoped this wouldn't end the same way it had the last time. Godric was standing with Eric and I as well as Pam since together the 4 of us made our own little odd family. Gabriel and Alec were standing with Helen and Louie who were the twosome that caught my attention most of all. When they had left earlier this evening, they hadn't even been looking at each other and now I could see that Louie had his arm around Helen's waist protectively and they were secretly grinning at each other when they thought none of us noticed. I caught Godric's gaze and we both smiled at the same time and I could tell from his thoughts that he had the same suspicion as I did about those two. Once this battle was over I would have to question them about it, but right now I was content with holding on to Eric's arm and thinking that there was no way we wouldn't all make it out alive. Of course we would, the other outcome just was not an option.

"Alright, it's time." Bill announced to us, looking down at Sookie and pulling her to his side before looking at our faces again. It had come down to this very moment and for a second we all just stood there in silence soaking up the intensity this night would bring. And then he got this crazy look of stubbornness in his eyes right before he said. "Ok, let's go take back the night."

**A/N: so now the pivotal moment in the fic comes into play, the battle in the graveyard...things are starting to swell and the loose ends begin to tie up after this...this definitely wont be as long as the other installments, but it packs a punch in the finale...now this might be my last chapter for a little while since it seems not many people are reading, but if you crave an update then push that review button and let me know**


	14. Taking back the night

**Chapter 14 Taking back the night **

"So how long do we need to be hiding back here?" Eric whispered into my ear as we stood in a huddle under the low hanging branches of a large tree and looked ahead in the distance to where Bill was walking alone, seeking out Antonia while we all remained out of sight like he had ordered us to do. Eric had been the first of the group to speak since we moved in place, the others were too focused on what was taking place in front of us. Even Sookie had been silent which wasn't normal for her, but then again it was her husband who was walking alone to go confront a witch who was possessed by the spirit of another witch. I couldn't blame her or any of them for not wanting to say anything. But this version of Eric was basically oblivious to how tense things were. I felt his hand at my waist, holding on to me protectively. "I thought we were going to war."

"Calm down killer, it will happen. But Bill is going to try and talk this bitch down first." I whispered back, keeping my voice as low as possible so it wouldn't be picked up by anyone. There were no other people in sight but these were witches we were dealing with, so just because we couldn't see them, it didn't mean they weren't already here. I pressed my fingers to Eric's lips to keep him from speaking. "Now stay quiet so we can watch and hear what's going on..."

"I'm a vampire, I can hear perfectly." Eric replied after pushing my hand away from his mouth, a smirk appearing as his blue eyes twinkled mischievously. "No one will hear us if we whisper..."

"You don't know that and we won't take the chance." Godric spoke up, his hand coming up to grip Eric's shoulder to also make sure the viking vampire knew to now stay silent. "Do not make me command you."

"Wow, my maker is a hard ass." Eric commented smartly, but he did fall silent just as we both sent him a look and set his eyes straight ahead as Louie and Helen, Alec and Gabriel, and Pam and Godric and Sookie all crowded closer to us as we spotted Bill coming face to face with the one person we had been waiting for...

"You dared to show up alone, I have to admit I am most impressed. I was betting that you would have gone back on your word." Marnie cackled in Bill's face, her arms crossing in a condescending way as she stood feet apart from him as if daring him to charge at her. It was weird to think that there was a spirit inside her, another person speaking for her. But it wasn't Marnie speaking for herself, it was Antonia's thick accent that was coming out, just like it had the night I met her out on the road. And then again, from what my Gran had warned me about, Marnie wasn't all that innocent on her own anyway. I watched as she eyed Bill up and and and even from this distance I could tell it was a look of pure disgust. "But you did show up and I am willing to listen to what you have to say. Not that it will make much difference..."

"Of course not, because that would be too easy." Bill shot back, his own arms crossing tightly over his chest. He wasn't backing down either and even I had to admit that he looked like the one vampire you wouldn't want to cross. But he was still going to try and get this to work out without violence. "I'm not here to argue, I'm here in the hope that we can resolve this without resorting to more physical measures."

"And what exactly are you asking I do for you Mr. Compton?" Antonia questioned, her eyebrows raised like she thought it was stupid for him to even ask. I could tell she wasn't going to do what he wanted anyway,but Bill didn't know. She rolled her eyes before saying. "If you're going to ask me to remove the curse on that ancient blonde vampire..."

"That's exactly what I was going to ask. But it's not just him, I want you to also remove the curse you put on his progeny Pam." Bill's voice wavered, like he almost didn't care to add Pam to the equation but he did and when he spoke again,his voice was more steady. "Do that and we have no more reason to interact."

"You say that now, but yet you sent Mr. Northman after the coven on the basis of nothing. So why should I believe your word now?" Antonia asked doubtfully, her eyes looking around the seemingly empty graveyard. "How can I trust that if I do remove the curses that you won't come after us again?"

"We'll just have to trust each other if we hope to survive from now on." Bill sounded like he was pressing his lips together but I could still hear him. "You have my word that no harm will come to you or your coven as long as you remove the curses."

"Trust is something I don't have in your word Bill Compton. And good thing I follow my instincts because I didn't come here alone tonight." Antonia stated and with a wave of her hands towards the black sky, a crowd of people appeared behind her. Men and women, both younger and older. All standing there behind their leader as if they would do anything she told them to do,even if it resulted in their deaths. Antonia seemed pleased and turned back to look at Bill triumphantly. "And I sense that you came prepared as well."

"You assume right." Bill agreed and raised his hand behind him to beckon us forward to stand with him. Eric and I went with Sookie first off, Godric came next and then Louie, Helen, Alec and Gabriel towards the back. Our appearance as well as the appearance of more vampire seemed to throw Antonia for a second and Bill could tell because he said. "It doesn't have to come to this, we can all walk out of here alive."

"It did come to this. You started this and now I finish it." She announced to the rest of us, her arms rising in the air and I could hear in her mind that she was muttering something. And a second later I saw the results of this new spell as cloud of thick, dark gray fog began to seep into the graveyard to distort our vision. We could barely see the witches anymore, only hear Antonia. "We'll see who's still standing at the end of the night..."

* * *

><p><em><span>5 minutes later<span>_

"You're going down Fanger!" A male witch shouted nearby through the haze of the fog and Louie barely had to look over his shoulder before he spotted the middle aged man rushing towards him with a large silver cross raised high in his hand. Louie smirked to himself, turning to face the human full on as this would be his first kill tonight. The others had all scattered into the fog to take on their own attackers and now he had one of his own. He could have easily rushed forward to meet this guy but he decided to wait, finding it more fun to be charged at. It would end soon anyway and once the man was within reaching distance, all Louie had to do was grab him around the neck after knocking the silver out of his grip and before he could think twice about it, he yanked and the head came clear off the neck and into his hands. Blood sprayed all over him as the body fell to the ground, some of it hitting him in the face and thereby giving him his first taste of human blood in years. He tossed the disembodied head on the grass, watching it roll as he wiped the blood from his lips.

"Hmmm, witch blood is not my thing at all. At least this guy wasn't." Louie said out loud to himself, wrinkling his nose as he moved way from the sight in search of another witch to attack. It was weird for him to be amongst other vampires, hunting witches when he had spent the better part of the last thousand years trying to avoid all contact with the world unless necessary. It was a different time now, and although it had been a while since he hunted like this, it came back to him naturally as he heard a rustle in the bushes off to the left of him. "That sounds like it could be worth checking out."

_"Get off me you whore! I will put a spell on your ass."_ It was another male witch, shouting just out of sight of where he was standing and it made Louie wonder which one of the group the human was facing. It had to be a vampire as he could smell the flow of blood just feet away. _"I got silver and I'm not afraid to use it."_

_"Well now you don't have it anymore. So now what?"_ Helen's voice belonged to the attacker behind the bushes and as Louie pushed through the shrubbery, he was not at all surprised to find Helen on top of the younger male. But what did surprise him was the amount of blood that had already been spilt on the grass and the look of hunger that was on Helen's face as she reared her head back and attached her fangs to the witch's neck again, drinking almost greedily. She didn't seem to notice his presence as she said. _"Mmm, you taste just divine."_

"Helen?" Louie couldn't help but call out to her, watching almost in amusement as her face snapped up to look at him with the blood running down her chin heavy like syrup. Her eyes widened a bit in surprise and he was quite sure that she never intended for him to see her in this state. He stepped forward, picking up on the fact that the human was still alive even though he was weak and looked at Helen with his eyebrows raised. "Having a little fun?"

"Louie...uh...i was just..." Helen quickly wiped the blood off her face and scrambled to her feet, but not before she kicked the male witch in the side of the head and rendered him unconscious. She yanked her clothes back on straight after they had become off kilter in the scuffle and looked at him with what was best described as shame on her face. "You weren't suppose to see me behaving like such a..."

"Like a vampire? Correct me if I'm wrong but this is what we're suppose to be doing tonight. Killing these witches, no matter how vicious it comes about. And I just ripped the head off one, so no need to be ashamed." He explained, grabbing her hand and pulled her away from the body crumbled on the ground. She didn't look him in the eye right away and he knew she was probably thinking that the sight of her being so cruel and vicious and so far from her old self was going to be the breaking point and send them back to how they were before. But that wasn't the case at all. In fact, Louie surprised even himself by what he said next. "Besides, I actually find it kind of hot to see you so ...unlike yourself."

"Seriously? You're going to say stuff like that when we're in the middle of a fight for survival?" Helen asked with her hands on her hip, but there was the tiniest of smirks on her lips. "Only you would react like that in a situation like this."

"Oh calm down, this confrontation is not as bad as you think it is." Louie waved off her comment, wanting to press this conversation along further but the sound of growls and screams from across the graveyard prevented that from happening. He glanced at Helen and shrugged. "I suppose we should get back to some more killing."

"I think you're right." Helen shot him a smile before she took off into the fog and he followed after her.

* * *

><p><em><span>10 minutes later<span>_

"Allie? Allie where are you?"

"I'm right here Sookie." I yelled out to my cousin, darting through the dense fog to reach her side on the outskirts of the graveyard and when she turned around and met my eyes, she almost sank to the ground in relief. I barely reached her side before she grabbed me up in a hug, her arms locking around me in a vice grip that felt as strong as a vampire. I heard the screams of pain of the witches being attacked when they weren't quick to outsmart the vampires and I could even hear Eric's primal growl from all the way across the cemetery, he was in his element and even without his memories he was still as vicious as ever. It was a relief, this war was a smaller scale battle then the first one and with everything against us right now I was afraid we wouldn't be able to survive. But the sounds of things seemed to swing it in our favor and when Sookie pulled back from me, I smiled. "It's OK, it will all be OK. I actually think it will end soon."

"Maybe you're...Look out!" Sookie suddenly shouted, shoving me roughly to the ground with her elbows where the wind was promptly knocked out of me. I had barely turned over to look up when I saw a bright light exploding from her fingertips that sent a male witch who had been sneaking up behind us, flying backwards into the fog with only a loud thud to signify he had landed. I breathed out a heavy sigh just as she dropped her hands to her side and looked down at me sheepishly. "Sorry about that, but he was aiming for you and I just reacted."

"It's OK, I think you only broke a few ribs when you hit me." I teased rubbing the side of my body where I had landed and felt the soreness in my ribcage. But luckily it would be nothing more then a few bruises, I knew what fractured ribs felt like and that definitely wasn't the case now. I looked at my cousin and reached my hand up towards her. "Well now that you saved my life, want to help me up?"

Sookie was just bending down to grab my hand when a loud bang cut through the air and froze her in mid hunch. I frowned, wondering what was the reason for her change of expression when I saw her glance down at her abdomen and start to open her jacket. My eyes followed hers and to my horror, I saw the blood starting to pool out from a wound in her stomach and it was only when I met her pain filled eyes that it made me realize what that sound had been. It was a gun shot, a gun shot that had been intended for someone in our group as not one of us had been carrying a gun. Sookie gasped, her hands covering her wound as she fell to her knees.

"Fuck." She whispered, falling back against a stone monument as her lips quivered in fear and her breathing began to become short and heavy. Her eyes met mine again and for the strangest second, she looked more worried for me then for herself. But that soon passed as she moved and fell sideways to the grass. "Fuck, I've been shot."

"Oh shit." I finally found the energy to move and crawled from the spot where I had fallen and over to where Sookie was laying. I got to her, pulling half her body into my arms and holding her up against me. Her blood coated my skin, she was losing lots of it and her eyes were fluttering closed like she was fighting sleep. I shook her hard. "Sookie, hold on. I'll go get help."

"Don't leave me alone." She clutched my wrist with one of her bloody hands, holding me in place as she struggled to stay conscious. "Stay with me. Help will come."

"Bill! Bill please come here. Sookie's hurt." I shouted off into the fog, not seeing anyone around me but knowing he had to have felt her pain. They had such a strong blood bond, he would have felt it as strongly as if it had been his own. But yet he wasn't showing up. Any other time he would have been there in an instance. But this wasn't like any other time, this was a real battle. These were witches and they could be preventing him from reaching us. I looked back down at Sookie, finding her face getting paler by the second and her eyes closed. She couldn't fight it anymore. I shook her again but there was no response and that's when I felt the first stabs of panic hit me. "Bill, she's dying. Please help..."

"Give her to me." A deep sounding voice suddenly spoke up from the area behind me and I couldn't even turn around to look at his face before I felt Sookie being scooped out of my arms and lifted into the air. I knew that voice, it was Alcide! He was standing there, appearing out of nowhere like he had been there the whole time and holding Sookie like he was prepared to dart out of the area any second now. "We have to get her out of here so..."

"No! Bill needs to heal her, he'll show up any minute." I snapped, getting to my feet and grabbing his arm to hold him in place. I wasn't even thinking clearly at this point. The only thing on my mind was getting Bill here to give her blood. "Don't take her..."

"There is a battle going on here. I've been watching from a distance in case you needed help and now you need it. Bill can't heal her in the middle of a fight." Alcide hissed at me, his concern evident in his voice despite the hard edge to his tone. He hoisted Sookie more tightly into his arms and jerked his head behind him towards the exit out of the graveyard. "I'm taking her back to your house, it will be safer to heal her there. And you're coming with me. Don't make me drag you out of here."

"You don't have to tell me twice." I told him before following closely at his back as he lead the way through the fog and out of the graveyard where I could still hear the screams of pain behind me.

* * *

><p><em><span>Back at the house<span>_

"She's not moving or making any noise. Oh this is bad. This is really bad."

"It is bad but she will be OK, I promise you I won't let her die."

"You don't have that power, only Bill does and he's not here. There's a war going on and he may not get back in time to save her." I nearly yelled at Alcide, my eyes never leaving the motionless form of my cousin where she lay on the couch after we had gotten back to the house. She had been mumbling slightly on the way here, but she soon went silent and judging by the blankness in her head, I knew she had passed out and had given into the pain. It made me panicked when she wouldn't respond and if I thought my own pain was hard to deal with, it was nothing compared to how horrible I felt to see her life in such close proximity to death because of this fight. Once again it all lead back to me, this battle was being fought because of the attack on my husband and if that hadn't been the case then Sookie wouldn't have been shot. So essentially this was my fault. I stood up from the couch, glancing down at my hands where Sookie's blood had dried on my skin and I nearly fell apart. "Oh god, if she dies I will never forgiver myself..."

"Hey, don't talk like that. She will be fine and I won't have you thinking anything differently." Alcide had had enough of my morbid commentary and had stomped across the room and yanked me closer to him by grabbing my shoulders and holding me in place so I had no choice but to look at him. "And this is not your fault. You didn't shoot her, those crazy ass witches did. So don't you dare blame yourself."

"But this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me. This whole confrontation tonight happened because that coven attacked my husband and cursed him. If it involves Eric then it involves me, so this was sort of my fault." I turned my head away to look at Sookie, the blood staining her clothes rapidly from the single bullet wound through her abdomen and I had to immediately look away again before I got sick. I squeezed my eyes shut to ward off any chance of crying and said. "It should have been me, I should have been the one to take that bullet. I should be the one with my life hanging in the balance..."

"No! Stop saying that, no one should be in that position. I won't listen to it." Alcide snapped almost viciously, sounding wounded and angry and he shook me so hard that my teeth chattered together and I physically winced at the tightening of his grip. It was obvious by the way he glared down at me that the idea of me being shot or hurt in any way was a great source of pain for him and even though he wouldn't say it out loud, it came through loud and clear. His fingers curled around my upper arms as he shook me again. "Don't say it should have been you, if you had been shot then I don't know what I would..."

"Sookie!" Bill's voice cut through the air suddenly and it was only a second later when he zoomed into the room, coming to a complete stop in front of the couch with his eyes wide and full of pain as he looked down at his wife. I couldn't read his thought because I was too distracted by the look of anguish on his pale face and I felt even more overwhelmed by guilt just from looking at him. I wanted to go over to him and say I was sorry but Bill was already shedding his jacket and rolling up his sleeves with his fangs extending. His eyes left Sookie's still form and glanced over to Alcide and me and I saw him share a look with the Were. "Alcide, take Allison into another room. She shouldn't be here to see this..."

"No, I'm not going any where. Don't you dare touch me." I shouted at Alcide when he made a move to start tugging me towards the doorway. I shrugged off his hands and tried to move closer to the couch but Alcide intercepted me and pulled me out of the room quicker then I thought possible. I just barely got a glimpse of Bill biting into his wrist before I was yanked out into the hallway and could no longer see them. "I swear to God, if you don't let me go then I will seriously kick your ass."

"Yea, I would love to see you try that." Alcide chuckled, his lips turning up slightly in amusement as he shoved me across the floor and into the library. I spun on my heels to glare at him as he closed the door behind him and stood in front of it to keep me from trying to leave. "I'm a Werewolf babe, it's going to take a lot to hurt me.."

"I've killed one of your kind before and I will do it again if I had to." I hissed, charging at him and hoping that my momentum would force him to move but he didn't even budge and I had to be the run to stop to avoid a collision. I stood in front of him, seeing the mildly shocked expression on his face as a result of my confession and I almost felt bad for letting it slip. I would never hurt Alcide but I was just so worked up about what happened to Sookie that I let an old secret slip out. The only thing that gave me relief was hearing in his thoughts that he was sure the Were I had killed had deserved it and I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have to. I looked up at him pleadingly. "Alcide please just move and let me go to be with her."

"I can't do that, I'm sorry. Bill needs to concentrate on getting blood in her and if you go charging into the room it could distract him and those precious seconds could prove fatal. So no, you're not going anywhere." Alcide shook his head stubbornly and maintained his strict posture, not willing to back down. I should have used my powers, should have forced him out of the way. But my instincts immediately were to try and hit him, so I did. He was quick and grabbed hold of both my wrists before they could swing high enough and spun me around so my back was against his chest and he was wrapping his arms around me so I wasn't able to escape. That didn't stop me from trying. I squirmed hard, trying to find a way out and growing so frustrated that tears slipped from my eyes. "Damn it you stupid Werewolf, I hate you.."

"No you don't, you're just upset. So I won't take it personally." Alcide told me without hesitation, moving sideways to the wall and slide down to the floor with me still in his arms. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I could still read that Alcide was quite thrilled to be this close to me but he would never think to say it out loud. I was glad for that because there was already enough to deal with without adding his attraction for me to the mix. And yet, I was glad he was holding me because right now I needed someone and he was the only one here besides Bill and Bill was busy saving Sookie's life. The others were still fighting the witches and wouldn't be back so Alcide would have to be the one to comfort me. And with the warmth from his body and his personality, I gradually felt myself starting to calm down. He must have picked up on it because his grip relaxed even though it stayed in place. "It will be OK, I just know it."

We didn't say anything for a long time after that, he just sat there on the floor with his arms around me and held me against him without even thinking of saying anything. I couldn't make a noise even though the tears kept on falling down my cheeks. Occasionally he would lift my face up to his to brush them away but other then that, neither of us moved. It felt odd to be in the arms of another man and yet it felt as natural as if he had been around me for years rather then just a few weeks. His warmth was comforting and drew me closer which made it even stranger because I was so much more use to the coldness of the vampires around me but there was just something so inviting about Alcide that I couldn't think of pulling away even though I knew I should. Alcide's thoughts ran rampant through his head and although I tried not to listen in, I still got the occasional sentence that spoke to his attraction for me. That should have made me uncomfortable but it instead comforted me farther knowing that I had another person who cared about me.

"Allison?" Bill had come into the room without either Alcide or I hearing him open the door but when we both saw him standing there looking down at us, we immediately jumped to our feet and I did my best to wipe away the tears that still fell. Bill's face although still tense and worried, was a lot more relaxed then it had been when he came into the house. He motioned towards the hallway. "I gave her blood and she came around, she will be perfectly fine. She's resting in the living room if you want to go see her."

"Oh thank God." I squeezed my eyes shut and saying a silent prayer of thanks to the heavens before I pushed passed Alcide and Bill and practically sprinted towards the living room. But before I even was out of earshot, I could just barely pick up the warning tone in Bill's voice as he addressed Alcide.

"Not that I'm not grateful for your actions tonight in taking the girls away from the battle, but it would be in your best interest to maintain a respectable distance from now on. Especially when it comes to Allison..."

* * *

><p><em><span>1 hour later<span>_

"Ok, can you stop looking at me like that? I'm fine, I'm not in any danger of dropping dead. So relax already." Sookie's teasing voice cut through my spinning thoughts and forced me to focus on her face clearly for the first time since I walked in the room. I had been so relieved to see her sitting up and talking that I was barely able to even reply back to her when she spoke to me. I mostly sat next to her with my legs jumping up and down, unable to stay still in my relief and it was only until 60 minutes had passed that she finally addressed me in such a way that drew attention to my overwhelming concern. She glanced over to where Alcide and Bill were sitting and raised her eyebrows at them. "Can one of you back me up here and assure her I am fine?"

"I tried that already and there was no getting through to her." Alcide replied with a sly grin, sending a quick glare at Bill who had been watching like a hawk the whole time since they joined us before he looked at me. "You are a hard one to crack when you're emotional."

"Shut up, don't talk anymore. You're getting on my nerves." I growled, trying to sound mean but it didn't work and only brought an even brighter smile to his face which further served to make Bill look more annoyed. I knew Bill was irked by the fact that it was Alcide's attraction for me that brought him back time and time again and things were already complicated enough in our lives without bringing in another person, but even Bill had to put that aside because Alcide's help had been a deciding factor in making sure Sookie was healed. I glanced between the two of them and shook my head. "I am so sorry for still being worried when my cousin was shot right in front of me and almost died tonight. Sue me for being a decent human being."

"No one is knocking you for caring so much, but you don't have to hold on to the worry now that the danger has passed. Nothing else is going to go wrong, sop please just let this go." Sookie reached out and placed her hand over the top of mine and squeezed my fingers in the same way she always had, in that maternal, sisterly way of hers. She was only 2 years older but she still took care of and comforted me as if I was still a child. Her lips curled up into a smile. "I don't want you to feel the pain I know you're feeling, so do it for me and just relax."

"Did you relax right away when I came back to life after you watched me die?" I asked her, seeing the drop in her face at the mention of the event that happened in the last war. I heard Alcide's breath catch sharply as I knew he had been informed of my resurrection by Sookie but he had been trying not to think about it. Bill's face went stiller then it already had been before and it became quite apparent that my death was still a source of pain for everyone even though I had been resurrected. I still nodded knowingly. "Exactly, so don't tell me to get over it so quickly. You needed time and so do I."

"We were only trying to..." Bill began to speak, to back up Sookie's sentiment but he was suddenly interrupted when the front door banged open and 6 fast moving figures appeared in the doorway of the living room, all covered in blood. Alcide, Bill, Sookie and I all jumped to our feet at the sight of the vampires sudden appearance and even more so at the expression on Godric's face as he looked around at us. Bill was the first to move forward, trying to take charge as usual. "What is it?"

"We continued the fight for as long as we could but eventually the coven took off and we were left alone in the graveyard. We tried to capture Antonia but no one could find her." Godric explained, looking down at his feet while wiping the blood off his forehead with the edge of his sleeve as the others stood silently behind him without looking at anyone. "She disappeared after she..."

"After she did what? What did she do?" I demanded, seeing the change in Godric's expression shift so quickly that I was sure no one else had caught it but me. Despite the problems Godric and I had had in the past few months, I still knew him as well as anyone and I could pick up on his mood change no matter how much he tried to hide it. I looked at Helen and Louie, Alec and Gabriel, Pam and...that was it. That was all of them. My eyes snapped back to Godric's face and I practically shouted. "Godric, why isn't Eric here? Where is he?"

"Allison I'm sorry..." Godric began to say but I stepped back in horror and cut him off.

"No, do not tell me something else happened tonight. Do not tell me that Eric was hurt." I held up my hands to ward him, hating that I had all these faces now looking at me. I kept my mind closed off so I wouldn't pickup on any stray thoughts or images from the vampires but I still needed answers. "Godric please..."

"Eric's not hurt, at least I don't think he is. I tried summoning him, but Antonia must have cursed him in some way because he hasn't shown up yet. The witches are no where to be seen and neither is he. They must have taken him to their meeting place to hold him until they decided to strike back at us. Either way, Eric cannot return to us tonight."

That was the last thing I chose to hear before I picked up a nearby book and threw it through the window on the other side of the room.


	15. Save Me

**Chapter 15 Save Me**

_The next night_

"What the hell are we doing just sitting here? Why aren't we doing something?"

"We were forced to not take action when we got back because it was too close to dawn. But now it's night fall and we're still here trying to figure out what to do? Doesn't that seem crazy?''

"Enough of this shit, we have to act and we have to act now before it's too late.."

"We are going to do something, we just need a definite plan or else we will all end up getting ourselves killed and then we will be of no more use..." Bill said out loud with an air of annoyance about him as his eyes searched the group that had assembled in the kitchen that night. I felt his eyes on me as I had been one of the only ones who hadn't spoken out of anger that we hadn't gone to rescue Eric and trust me it wasn't because I wasn't angry. I was beyond pissed and that hadn't eased up over the course of the day and when the sun went down and the vampires gathered back up here in the main part of the house, I was reminded even more of my anger over what Marnie or Antonia had done, or whoever she was right now. They had Eric and who knows what they planned to do with him, the possibilities had run rampant in my mind in the few hours I had gone to sleep and if it wasn't for Sookie being there then I would have lost it. I don't know how I made it through the day without her, because if left up to my own devices, then I would have torn the house apart. But she kept me in check, along with Alcide who she had called in just in case he could offer some kind of help that we hadn't thought of. He was standing next to me as Bill spoke and occasionally I got glimpses of his thoughts that the only reason he was here was because of Sookie and me, but mostly because of me. I saw Bill's eyes flicker dangerously at the werewolf but he eventually turned his gaze to the rest of the group who were still stammering almost incoherently. "Ok, all of you shut up already. We need to figure this out right now..."

"He's right, so let's just get down to business ok?" I looked around the room for any sign of resistance and I wouldn't have been surprised if there had been any. Everyone in this house right now had a strong personality and would climb over each other just to be heard. But being Eric's wife and speaking up seemed to shut them up more so then Bill, who had more authority then I did. I sighed heavily and ran my fingers through my hair before saying. "Look, the witches have a place right here in Shreveport as you know, that's where they probably took Eric. We should check there first."

"How are we suppose to do that? This necromancer knows who we all are now after the confrontation last night. She will be ready for us." Godric spoke up, looking at all of us with an expression of utmost composure. But I knew that through the blood bond that we shared, that he was just as worried as I was, he was just better at hiding it. He was one of the eldest vampires around and in this room, so when he spoke, everyone listened in. "She could have protective spells up already."

"I don't care damn it!" I surprised everyone when I shouted this out at Godric, the volume of my voice grabbing all the vampire's attention and I had many pairs of immortal eyes on my face right now. Even Alcide was looking down at me in shock, his dark eyes wide and his hands rising slightly like he wanted to grab me. I turned away from him and said. "It doesn't matter if there are spells up. We have to do something before they do something."

"She's right, we do have to do something soon." Bill jumped to my side immediately, nodding his head as he looked at the rest of the room. "They could kill him at any moment..."

"Who cares.." Alcide grumbled under his breath and of course everyone heard him but I was the only one who actually sent him a glare in response.

"This is what we're going to do..." I snapped, my hands curling into fists as I stepped forward away from the counter so I was standing in the middle of the circle and looked around at each of them. Sookie and Bill stood together, wrapped around each other and staring at my sympathetically. Godric watched me with protective eyes while Pam stood nearby looking pissed but still part of the odd family that was ours. Louie, Helen, Alec and Gabriel were side by side across from me and all four of them looked unsure but ready to do whatever was asked. Only Alcide remained outside the circle. I turned to look at Bill. "I will go there to the building and pretend to offer myself..."

"Oh hell no, you're not doing that." Alcide replied gruffly, his only other statement that night so far besides the jab at Eric. We all turned to stare at him but he didn't seemed to realize that he now had the attention of the room, he only stood up to his full height and frowned at me. "Are you insane? You're not going to offer yourself as a bribe, you're not even going to pretend..."

"It's too dangerous..." Bill cut in, not liking that Alcide was staring at me the way he was. I got that gist from a brief flash of his thoughts and I knew it wasn't because he even was on Eric's side all that much. But he certainly did not like werewolves and especially not Alcide who didn't seem at all bothered by Bill's tone. Bill shot him another glare before stating. "The safest way, would be to draw the witches to us since they obviously took Eric as a bargaining chip."

"I will stay and help you." Alcide replied, directing his comment at me and not at Bill even though it was Bill had last spoken. Alcide's eyes were back on me, his gaze so intense that I couldn't look away just yet. "You need to have as many..."

"You should go home werewolf. This isn't your fight." Bill frowned, getting that look on his face that said he was on the verge of forgetting that we had a more serious matter at hand. He really seemed to hate Alcide and I was beginning to think it had less to do with Alcide just being another man with an obvious interest in me. It had more to do with Bill not approving of me, his family now through Sookie, of getting involved with a werewolf. Not that I ever would, I was happily married to Eric and once Eric got his memories back at some point in the future then it would all be normal again. But Bill seemed to think that wouldn't make much of a difference.

"You should go Alcide, this has nothing to do with you. You really shouldn't be involved." Sookie piped up, almost looking at him with guilt like she was betraying him in some way. She left Bill's side and approached him with her shoulders shrugging. "It's not your battle to fight, it's ours. You need to go."

"I agree." I backed my cousin up, earning a sharp frown from Alcide and an approving node from Bill when I said this but I ignored him. I felt bad for wanting to send Alcide away, because truthfully I was beginning to feel safer with him around and that was dangerous for everyone. There were already too many people involved that I cared about who I couldn't convince to step away from this situation. But Alcide was the one that I could keep safe and the only way was to get him out of here. "You have no business being here, go home."

"You're going to regret that. And you know it." Alcide said with a shake of his head, his face saying all that needed to be said as his mind was now just a big canvas of blankness. He was disappointed by my words and I could see that when he turned on his heels and walked out of the room without another word. We all listened to him walked through the hallway to the front of the house and heard the door open and them slam shut as if to emphasize his point. When it was all quiet again, Bill stepped into the empty space where Alcide had stood and made his last announcement.

"We're going to the main street in Shreveport and we're drawing out the witches. This all ends now..."

* * *

><p><em><span>40 minutes later<span>_

She was waiting for us when we got there. It was only her, but her presence was enough to send a jolt of fear and anger surging right through my chest and it took every ounce of courage and strength I had to not go running in the other direction.

It was basically a ghost town the minute we set foot on that main street as not a sound could be heard for what seemed like miles. Even the vampires were surprised that they couldn't sense any other humans besides the witches in the building right up ahead. It was only when Alec spoke up and explained that there must have been a spell cast to repel any non supernatural being, that we understood why there was no one else in sight. It was creepy and it really added a sense of heaviness and doom as we walked down that street towards the shop that was the only building that was alive with lights. I could hear Sookie drawing in a sharp breath as I did when we all set our eyes on the lone figure standing straight ahead of us, the vampires already had their fangs clicking out but not one of them charged forward yet to attack. Maybe they were attempting to do what Bill had said back at the house and not react too quickly or else they risk getting killed. But still, even I had a hard time holding on to my composure when I saw here just standing there with her arms crossed like we were all friends and this wasn't going to turn into yet another confrontation. And it definitely was because she had taken away the one person that bound us all together in some way. And not one of us was going to stand for it.

But it was harder to stay passive when as soon as Antonia saw us approaching, she let out this loud cackling laugh that was anything but funny and caused a ripple effect amongst the vampires. They all extended their fangs fully and went to rush forward but it wasn't magic that stopped them, it was the unseen threat of danger that did it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." Antonia called out when the vampires looked like they were ready to charge across the empty intersection but they came to a sudden stop just in the middle of the street, all of them looking around threateningly like they expected some big bad creature to come out and attack. But then again this was a powerful necromancer we were dealing with, who knew what she had up her sleeve. Bill didn't look like he wanted to listen and made a move to step forward again when Antonia started laughing. "You see, there is a protective shielding spell put up around this building. And it was of my own doing, you can't step any closer. Only witches can pass through."

"Good thing I have witch blood in me then.." I snapped, feeling a flame of fury explode up in my chest at her taunting expression. How dare she look at me like that? She couldn't just steal my husband and use him as bait and then look at me like I couldn't do anything about it. Well I could, I may not be a witch, but my birth mother is a witch and Molly's blood ran through my veins. And that could be enough to get me through that shield so I could attack this bitch. I went to take a step forward but before I could even plant my foot down to the pavement, a gust of wind blew my hair back and I felt an arm snake around my waist and pull me backwards. I snapped my head to see who it was and was surprised that it was Godric. I squirmed inside his stone grasp even though it wouldn't make any difference. "Godric, let me go!"

"I'm sorry Allison, but I can't do that.." Godric responded with a sad frown, moving me backwards away from the intersection where the shield must have started. His hands were gentle on me but his grip was firm and unrelenting. "If you go through that shield, then we can't help you if she takes you prisoner too."

"Speaking of prisoners..." Antonia began to say but her voice trailed off as she motioned behind her with her hand and snapped her fingers sharply, making me wonder what the hell she was doing. A second later, we saw what she had done as Eric suddenly appeared at her side, his face blank and absent of any expression. But he was alive and still Godric had to hold on to me when my knees nearly gave out on me. It was so shocking to see my husband standing there when he hadn't been a moment before and I guess I was even more shocked to find him unharmed. I was so afraid that these witches would have done something to him before we got there. So even though he was standing there and staring out in front of him blankly, I was still not as relieved as I should have been.

"Eric.." My voice was tiny as called out to him, but he heard me because I saw his eyes flicker towards where Godric and I were standing and I saw life in those blue orbs. He wasn't under any more spells, thank goodness. But he was still not moving towards me. "Eric, please..."

"I can't. I can't go to you." He replied, his gaze looking like it was forced downward because I saw his neck tense like he was fighting back. "I can't reach the other side unless I wish to die."

"And we can't have that now can we? Not when we need to play a little bit longer." Antonia smirked, staring all of us in the face in triumph before nodding to Eric. "Come my cold friend, we have things to discuss.."

"No wait, come back!" I shouted, somehow hoping that my voice would be enough to crack whatever hold he was under so he wouldn't leave. I was scared that if he left my sight, then that could be the end of it and in relation it could be the end of him. But not even my own strong will was enough to break through that kind of magic, nothing could combat it except more magic and I didn't have that power. I couldn't break through and fix this and it killed me to say that. I watched Eric and Antonia disappear into the building and slam the door shut, leaving the rest of us out here dumbfounded. Godric's arms were still around me as I snapped my face towards Bill. "What are we suppose to do now? How do we save him?"

"Uh...Well..." Bill frowned deeply, looking around at our group and I could tell that he didn't quite know where to go from here. If I didn't like admitting that I couldn't do something then Bill really hated admitting to it and he was the King, he was suppose to know what to do and it looked like he was just as at a loss as we were. But he obviously had one possible solution up his sleeved before he would even think to admit to defeat. "We might need to call in Nan."

* * *

><p><em><span>15 minutes later<span>_

"...such bullshit, complete and utter bullshit!"

"..incompetence like I've never seen before in 816 years."

"I give him one task to do and he can't do that at all."

"What was I thinking making Bill Compton King?"

"Alright, alright. We get the point, you're pissed off." I sighed heavily with a quickly dissolving patience as I looked across the empty street to the sidewalk where Nan was pacing back and forth in front of the group looking just as angry and furious as she had been when she arrived a few minutes before. I knew it was a mistake to get her involved in this but Bill insisted that she needed to be called in and had gone ahead and did it. He just didn't take into account that when Nan found out that he had been withholding knowledge about Eric being cursed, that she would beyond angry and he found that out first hand when she showed up and immediately went off on him. The rest of us just stood back and watched, knowing we shouldn't even think to get involved. But as time wore on and she didn't do anything besides yell, I was starting to get frustrated with her presence. "Look, if you're not going to help us then you might as well leave.."

"Don't fuck with me bitch." Nan growled when my tone reached her ears and her face snapped towards me with a glare. A gust of wind blew my hair off my shoulder as she rushed at me and wrapped her hand tightly around my throat, cutting off my air supply as she frowned down at me. "This is your mess I have to clean up."

"I didn't do this, the necromancers did." I spat out even though it hurt just to even draw breath. I sent a glare up at her pale face even though I was more scared then angry at this point. "This isn't my mess."

"It concerns your idiotic husband and his inability to follow orders. So yes, it is your mess by default." Nan threw back as she subtly tightened her grip on me, causing my eyes to water and my hands to hit uselessly at her arm. "Are you going to scream now?"

"Leave her alone.." It was Helen's voice who spoke up from the back of the group and I felt the wind pick up again as she was now standing right by Nan with her hand at the taller vampire's throat and a dark look in her eyes. "Let her go before I hurt you."

"You wouldn't dare." Nan seemed almost amused by this statement and her attention was drawn away from me by the younger looking blonde. I knew from her flash of thoughts that she wasn't use to any vampire directly defying her or even standing up to her. So when Helen came to my defense, it threw Nan, even as she tried to cover it up. "I would back off before I turn my anger on you."

"You couldn't, I'm a thousand years old. You're an infant to me." Helen shot back, her voice as calm and as composed as if she were talking to any one else. But I saw in her eyes that she wasn't as relaxed as her voice suggested. I hadn't seen Helen's unhinged side yet except when she staked Mark in the backyard. But judging by the wave of fury rushing through her mind, I knew this was nothing like the last time. "Don't make me hurt you. Let her go."

"If you insist." Nan sneered at Helen before loosening her grip and allowing me to fall back down to the pavement,gasping for air. Neither Nan or Helen moved from their positions, seemingly forgetting that we were in the middle of the street and had a building full of witches to deal with. "You don't want to mess with me."

"And you don't want to mess with me." Helen shot back, raising her eyebrows high up into her forehead. "I'm more powerful then you, I could kill..."

"Well, doesn't this look fun. Vampire on Vampire fighting. I adore this." Antonia's voice broke us all out of our concentration on the possibility of a near fight and turned to find the necromancer in question standing back out on the sidewalk in front of the shop with her arms crossed and a bemused look on her face. I don't know how long she had been out here watching, but it couldn't have been that long because none of the other vampire had noticed. Eric was no where in sight and I felt my heart plummet even lower and just prayed that this would end soon. I couldn't take yet another fight. "Are things not working out in your ranks?"

"Listen you crazy bitch, you have one of our vampires in your custody and I'm here to tell you to release him right now." Nan grew tired of trying to intimidate Helen and instead left that alone as she turned to stare down Antonia who did not look at all threatened. Probably because she was still on the other side of a protective shield. But Nan seemed to just push that aside as she stepped closer. "I'm not interested in a fight. Give us Mr. Northman back and we don't have to get violent."

"I don't think so. In fact, I think you're going to have to do better then that." Antonia's condescending tone irked Nan which I think was the intention because Nan went to step forward again before we could tell her to stop. The shield must not have been up because Nan was able get across when the rest of them couldn't. But she wouldn't get much further because Antonia raised her arms and a wall of flames suddenly rose up right in front of Nan, sending the over 800 year old vampire flying backwards to protect herself while Antonia just stood there and laughed. "You can't do better then that, and the worse is yet to come."

She turned away and went back inside but not before raising her hands again and we saw the shield go back down to the pavement right where Nan had previously stood and then she was gone. The streets were quiet as we just stood there, trying to figure out what to do. Nan frowned at the closed front door of the shop and then whirled around with her hands on her hips.

"Now, I'm really pissed off."

* * *

><p><em><span>1 hour later<span>_

60 minutes...3600 seconds later and it did get worse. And the worse part of it was that none of us saw it coming. Not at all.

After the confrontation between Nan and Antonia, there had been no activity out on the streets for the next hour. It was quiet and calm and was like nothing had ever happened or would happen. It was eery and maybe that's the reason we still stood on our guard for anything that might occur. But nothing did. In fact, it was so calm that Nan even got bored and left the street all together, leaving Bill with stern words that he was to fix this within 48 hours or else she was going to fix it and them all at the same time. By the time she left, there was already a generally discord between all of us while we waited for something to happen. Sookie remained at Bill's side, her arms around him tightly like she was the one that was the protector. Helen and Louie were standing the same way, obvious that their differences up to this point had been diminished completely as they were now just content to put it aside and be together. Even in a situation like this, seeing the together made me smile and wish that one day I could be like that again. But of course that would involve first rescuing Eric and then figuring out how to bring his memories back. It wasn't just going to end here tonight on this street in Shreveport, it was going to go on longer then we would like it to. I just knew that by instinct now. After all that had happened to me over the past year and before that, I knew trouble had a way of lasting in my life. I would never truly find peace, at least not for very long.

I was just thinking about that when the door to the shop opened and a tall figure emerged. It was Eric! But it wasn't Eric, at least not the one I knew or had gotten to know in the last few weeks. This Eric had a determined look in his eyes, a look to kill. I pushed at the mental bridge I had to his mind and I was shaken up by the things I saw there. His head had been filled with even more darkness then usual, a mission of sorts that he needed to accomplish and I barely had a chance to feel scared before I saw Bill's face appear in his head. My stomach clenched tightly, far too tightly for it to mean anything good. Eric had been sent out here by Antonia to go after Bill, an action solidified when she came out behind him and nodded out to the street. Oh this was not good.

"Bill, watch out. He's going to try and kill you." I yelled out to my vampire relative before Eric could move, but my warning was a little too late as the next time I looked at the front of the shop, Eric was gone and Antonia was standing there with a triumphant smirk. The shield was gone so I moved forward. "You're going to die bitch."

"No, I think that will be Mr. Compton over there." She motioned behind me to where I could just spot Eric trying to fight his way towards Bill who was now being protected by the other vampires who stood in his path. Eric was flashing around all over the place, trying to find an opening to get through and it scared me to see him trying that hard to kill Bill. I knew it wasn't his own doing but it just seemed so real as he had never liked Bill in the first place. Antonia's cackle brought me back to face her. "And if you're not careful my dear, then you'll die right along with him."

"Eric no!" Godric's panicked voice cut through my head and sent my attention running back to the scene in front of me where Eric was starting to push himself through the crowd of vampires in an attempt to get to Bill. Godric was older and he tried to push back and even command Eric to stop but it didn't help. Louie rushed to Godric's side to also fight back against Eric, but my husband must have been under some pretty heavy magic because he was somehow able to push aside two vampires who were twice his age and send them flying backwards into the nearby building where they smashed through separate windows and went out of sight.

"Kill the king, Kill the king." Antonia was commanding him, telling him what to do now that Godric and Louie were out of action. She was like a puppet master, pulling whatever string she wanted and forcing Eric to do this horrible thing against his will. And he did it. Even when Helen and Pam stepped in his path, he simply threw them both down the opposite street away from him where they left ruts in the pavement that sent rock and concrete flying everywhere. Alec and Gabriel were the last vampires to offer resistance and they rushed at Eric, grabbing on to his arms to try and drag him away but they were younger and still no match for the magic now flowing through Eric. Eric shoved them backwards so fast and low that I had to duck to avoid being hit by their flying bodies. Antonia was amused by all this and still never deterred from her orders. "Kill him, kill now."

"No!" It was my cousin who screamed this out, her voice full of horror and fear and I watched in shock as Eric was able to grab Bill around the neck and get control of him. I didn't know what to do, I was frozen in place but obviously Sookie wasn't as she ran forward at Eric, forgetting that she couldn't overpower him in any sense. That didn't stop her for grabbing on to him and trying to pull him off her husband. She didn't move him of course but she yelled and hit him enough that he turned around and shoved her off to the side away from him as if she were a rag doll. She fell against the side of a parked car and crumbled to the ground.

"Sookie!" I found feeling in my limbs right then and ran across the wide street to where she was on the ground and got down on my knees beside her,my hands on her arm as I feared that she might have bee injured seriously. But to my overwhelming relief, she shook her head and sat up, moving her arms and legs to show she was ok. Dazed but ok. I practically sank down next to her before I gathered myself again and helped her up amidst the crashing and screaming going on all around us. "Sookie, what are we going to..."

"Now. Kill him now." Sookie and I whipped our heads towards the scene taking place in front of us where Antonia was staring at Eric who had Bill on his knees and was now holding a large piece of sharp wood, intending to drive it through Bill's chest. Sookie fell to her knees, already crying because nothing could be done to stop him. The vampires had tried, we had tried and now everyone was down and out. Maybe this was going to come to an end sooner then anyone ever thought. Antonia dropped her arms down to her side and smirked. "Do it. End him."

Eric tightened his grip on Bill's throat as well as on the wood he held in his other hand. Even from this distance I could see that he was trying to fight back against it, trying not to do what she wanted him to do. But he wasn't strong enough to stop it, he was a thousand year old vampire who could do anything in my eyes but he couldn't stop this. I saw in his mind that he knew he couldn't stop himself from killing Bill no matter how hard he tried to fight. It killed him to admit that he didn't have the strength to get his own free will back. But this was a magic darker and more dangerous then we had ever imagined and we couldn't do anything. We could only watch. Eric raised the stake high in the air, seconds away from striking and even Bill must have realized that this was the end because he stopped fighting back, stop struggling and just went still. Seeing that happen made my heart squeeze painfully and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't stop Bill's impending death, I knew that deep down. But my body's natural instinct was still to try something, anything. So when I felt the light burst out of my fingers and hands, I just instinctively threw my arms out in front of me and sent the solid beam of light straight at Eric, even knowing it wouldn't do anything. But something did happen. Because the second that white light hit Eric in the chest, he released Bill and dropped the piece of wood and stood there hunched over like the light was stealing everything out of him.

"My face is perfect again!" Pam's voice had resurfaced and her tone was joyous and momentarily drew my attention away to where she was standing on the sidewalk and I was stunned. Her face was normal looking, the rot gone, the decay disappearing like it had never been there. She touched it all over like she thought she was dreaming. "I'm back bitch."

"She broke it, she broke the curse." Antonia for the first time that night seemed terrified and I saw her eyes flicker over to me as I dropped my arms down to my side. She looked at me with wide eyes. "What the hell did you do?"

"I don't...I don't know..." I stumbled over my words, still taken aback that Pam's curse had somehow been lifted but it wasn't her that I was pulled to stare at, it was Eric. He wasn't going after Bill or trying to fight anyone, he was just standing there staring at me with wide blue eyes that I couldn't look away from. I could see into his mind, his thoughts running rampant as if a transaction of sorts was being done. The realization of what was going on hit me hard but I couldn't look away. Not when I was seeing everything flooding back into his head. Flashes of him as a human, flashes of him and Godric in the first years of their lives together. Eric on a rooftop in Dallas crying at Godric's feet. Eric rescuing me from the fellowship, Eric saving me from the stake I had taken for Pam. I saw Eric's face the night he walked into the bedroom and saw that I had been resurrected, the night we had laid together and decided to pledge our love for the rest of our lives. The night we were married, the night he had gone to confront the witches weeks ago, the night he had been cursed. It was all coming back to him, he was remembering everything. I saw the realization dawn on his face as well as the others who were now standing on the street closer to Eric then I was, but it was only his face that I could take in. I don't know how I did it, but somehow I had broken the curse. I drew in a sharp breath, feeling my chest tighten as I took one step forward, my eyes swimming with tears as I looked at my husband and for once thought he was actually looking back at me as himself. "Eric?"

"You... you...saved me. I remember everything."


	16. Waking up

**Chapter 16 Waking up**

"Allison..." Eric's voice was his own as he continued staring at me, his gaze never wavering as if it seemed like we were the only two people out on that street and not surrounded by vampires and a crazy witch who was looking at me in horror and amazement. I myself was amazed at what I had just done. I never would have thought that my own power could counteract the effects of the curse on both Eric and Pam but it had. It had pushed that dark magic right out of them as easily as if it had been air, returning them both to normal. I'm sure Antonia never thought that would be possible but I guess I was stronger then I realized and that realization must have dawned on her as well because she ended up backing away and running for the door of the shop while everyone else gathered around Eric in elation. But Eric couldn't stop staring at me, staring at me like he was seeing me for the first time after a very long nap. And I guess that was the case. "You..."

"Oh my God, I thought you were going to be lost forever. I'm so glad you're back." Pam said, getting to him first and she immediately threw her arms around him as she burst into loud tears that could be heard by everyone around her. But she didn't care, she just hugged her maker tightly and he hugged her back, holding the back of her head in his hand but his eyes were still on me. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." He assured her in his short, no nonsense way that showed he was indeed back to his old self. He sent her a crooked smirk, cupping her face briefly before letting her go and moving past her but he was stopped by the one other person who could steal his attention from me. "Godric."

"Nice to have you back with us my son." Godric couldn't hide the relieved and happy smile that shined across his face as he wiped a drip of blood from his forehead and tucked his hands under his arms as he grinned again. His relief was evident on his face as well as through the blood bond we shared. I knew how hard it had been for me to not have the real Eric with me but I guess I never gave as much thought to how Godric had been dealing with it. "You were missed."

"Yea I'm sure.." Eric's eyes flickered back to me where I was still standing shell-shocked at the other end of the street and he finally pushed free of the others and stood alone as he stared at me. He wanted to say a lot, I could tell by the activity going on in his head but he didn't. "Allison."

I didn't realize how drained I was by the emotion of the last few days and by the sudden display of power I just showed in curing Eric and Pam. But the extent of my limitations came back to me now as our eyes locked together and I felt my knees shaking, like they couldn't quite hold up my tiny frame. The last thing I saw before I was falling was Eric's perfectly still face and beautiful blue eyes that finally knew who I was. And then I found myself collapsing onto the street, feeling the cold hard pavement under me as my vision went dark and I couldn't hear anything. I don't know how much time had passed but when I opened my eyes again, I was no longer lying in the streets of Shreveport. I was laying in a soft bed with white sheets in a room I knew very well. I was back in my house, the house I shared with Eric and just the briefest of seconds I was certain that nothing in the last 2 days had happened. Or it had and I just somehow dreamed that I had been apart of it. I shook my head, feeling the focus come back to my head and I pushed myself up into a sitting position, wondering if I was in the house alone when my eyes caught sight of something to the side of the bed and I gasped.

"Eric!" I started crying before he even reached me and it was because of that that my vision was off kilter again and I was glad I was sitting in bed because if I had been standing then I knew I would have collapsed again. Everything came back to me now. The confrontation, the fights, the breaking of the curse, Eric getting his memories back and then me passing out on the streets. It was all there in my head as Eric shot over to the bed and sat down beside me, my hands immediately reaching out for him. "You...you're really back? You remember everything?"

"Yes." He nodded, his mind showing that he indeed had every single memory back. All the way from his time as a human and his first years as a vampire and all the way up to the battle with the witches and the whole time he was cursed. He had memories of what happened when he hadn't been himself as I saw myself with him and trying to remind him of his old self. He remembered that even though he had been controlled by dark magic. He remembered it all. I felt his hand on my face, directing it up so he was looking at me. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I asked when I finally had control over myself and pulled away so I could run my hands up and down his face just to assure myself that he was real and not a hallucination. His cold skin was firm and as hard as it ever had been under my warm and very human hands. He was real, I nearly would have fallen apart again had it not been for what he had just said. "You're sorry? For what?"

"For screwing up and not following the Queen's orders..." Eric's face twitched into a sneer as he said this about Bill, looking very much like his old self and that brought a sense of relief to me to see this old look. "If I had just done what I was told, then none of this would have happened...i never would have forgotten you if I had just behaved myself..."

"Then you wouldn't have been you if you had behaved..." I felt my lip shake almost violently before a new batch of tears hit my eyes and I threw my face down into my hands so he couldn't see me cry. He hated seeing tears from anyone, but especially from me. That really sent a jolt through him and I didn't want him to worry about anything else after what he had been through. "Now I'm the one who is sorry. I don't want you to see me like this after you finally are back to normal..."

"I think you might have a right to be a little frazzled. You lived through this too, you didn't sign up for this kind of thing when we got married. Especially not this soon..." He frowned like he couldn't believe that I had the nerve to worry about him. But how could I not? He had been cursed for weeks and it had all happened out of nowhere and right after we were married. The first few weeks of marriage should have involved us never leaving the house for anything and being ridiculously and happily in love. Instead, I had gone through the last two weeks married to a complete stranger, or that was how it seemed. And Eric looked guilty about it. "I'm sorry for leaving you alone..."

"Don't...don't mention these last few weeks. Not right now. I don't want to think about it." I shook my head quickly, cutting him off from going too far into it. Enough had happened tonight that I just didn't want to have to think. I was tired, drained and emotionally exhausted. I couldn't take any more right now. I looked at Eric. "Lay with me for a while, pretend that nothing that occurred in the last few weeks ever happened."

"I can do that." He replied, sending a smirk at me before he moved me aside and climbed into bed, stretching out his long limbs all the way down to the end. I felt his arm snake around behind me and I crawled into his embrace, laying my head on his chest and closing my eyes so I could feel what it was like to lay with my husband for the first time and have him know who I was. It was as close to heaven as I could get. He must have felt that too because he said. "I think I missed this."

"I did too."

* * *

><p><em><span>60 minutes later<span>_

He left her alone in the room and went downstairs to find the others. He didn't want to leave her, not now and not ever. But especially not now, not when he had just come back to her. She may have fallen asleep and wouldn't know if he had been gone, but he would have liked to just stay there all night and watch her. But he couldn't do that. Sookie and Bill along with Pam and Godric were waiting down in the living room for him and the longer he kept them waiting, the longer he would be away from Allison and he didn't want that. He may have remembered everything that had gone on while he had been cursed but that was now. He didn't know it at the time and he felt shame for having her go through that. He wouldn't let her be alone like that again. So once he had spoken to the others, he was going to be there at her side until she ordered him away. And even then he probably wouldn't leave her.

"She's fine..." He announced when he turned the corner into the living room and watched as everyone jumped to their feet at his arrival, causing him to smirk and raise his eyebrows in mock annoyance. It was like they expected him to come back downstairs and have his memories gone all over again. And if he were in a better mood then he could have understood it. But his mind was too much on his wife at the moment. "She's just worn out from everything that happened."

"She's not the only one who was worried sick. We all were." Pam spoke up bitterly from her spot against the wall where she stood with a very annoyed look on her face. "I mean, we all lived through this. It wasn't just her."

"Shut up Pam, she saved you too." Eric found himself snapping, sending a glare at his progeny for her attitude. He knew his child had been scared for him but that didn't mean she could take jabs at his wife. "Show a little respect."

"I can't believe she broke the curse." Godric jumped in, expressing his disbelief in such a way that the little rise in tension had quickly evaporated. Eric wanted to thank his maker for butting in even though he could have handled it, but Godric was already speaking again. "If we had know that's all it would take then we would have fixed this long ago."

"There was no way of knowing that Fae power could over power a witch or drive out a curse. It's never been done before." Bill nodded in agreement, even he looked astounded that this had all happened. And Eric was sure Bill was feeling a little bit dejected because he hadn't been the one to fix this whole situation and he was King. Bill was supposed to have found the solution and instead Allison had stumbled upon it by accident. Bill couldn't have liked that. "And Antonia is powerful but yet, Allison managed to get the best of her..."

"Allison is a miracle to our race. She's done things for vampires that no other Fae has ever done. Resurrection, reversing curses, that should not be possible but she made it possible..." Godric's eyes drifted upward for a second and Eric knew his maker was thinking about the young girl asleep upstairs and all she had done for every single one of them. Yes she had love for everyone in this room, but that didn't mean she was automatically required to do things to help them in such a way that could hurt her. Resurrecting Godric took her blood, her life force. And breaking the curse had put her in Antonia's path and forced her to take a chance. She was always saving them in her own way. Godric shook his head. "A living breathing miracle.."

"She shouldn't have to be a miracle..." Eric didn't know why, but he felt angry all of a sudden. He was a vampire, he was suppose to be saving himself. He didn't want his delicate, very mortal wife to be putting herself in harm's way to rescue him or anyone else. She needed to be more selfish, she needed to put herself first more. He slammed his fist into the nearby wall, a resounding thud echoing through the room. "She shouldn't have to fucking save us all the time."

"I agree but..."

"No buts, too much shit has happened to her..." Eric yelled, ignoring his maker's attempts to cut in as he refused to take a seat despite trying to motion him down into a chair. "I'm so sick of this bullshit!"

"We all are Eric, but that's why we are here. We need to figure out a way to put an end to this once and for all." Godric said in that tone that Eric had come to recognize a lot over the years, that tone of understand and authority. And had it been any other situation with any other people then Eric would have probably at least considered listening. But he was already turning around and shooting out of the living room as his maker spoke again. "Eric, do not..."

Eric flashed back upstairs, hightailing it away from the room before he could hear another word and came to a stop in the doorway of the bedroom. He looked passed the door to the bed where his wife was still sleeping soundly, her silky brown hair spread out over the pillow and her face relaxed as if she did not have a care in the world. Like she hadn't experienced horror and betrayal and loneliness and pain. She looked innocent and pure and unblemished. She was like an angel and he cursed the fact that he had essentially left her alone this whole time. He should have thought about her when he was making the choice to defy Bill's order. But the selfish part of him hadn't allowed logic to take over and this was what fate had dealt them. Well he was making a vow here and now to never make that mistake again.

Not to mention that he was going to finish those witches if it was the last thing he ever did.

* * *

><p><em><span>The next morning<span>_

When I opened my eyes again, it was already the next day and I was in the bed alone. It wasn't a total surprise considering it was day and Eric had to be under ground for the next 12 or so hours. And after what we had all gone through last night, I wouldn't want even the smallest thing to compromise his safety. But it was precisely that notion that wanted Eric to still be next to me when I sat up in bed. But the more logical side took over just then and I resolved to be stronger and not just think about myself and what I wanted. Eric and I were married, every decision and action had to be made with each other in mind. And if it wasn't safe for him to be next to me, then he couldn't be and I had to deal with that. And I would. Because today was a new day and for once, I did not hate the day before it began. Because today I had something I didn't have the day before. I had my husband back, nothing else mattered.

I pushed back the sheets and swung my legs down to the floor before walking across the room and pushing aside the curtains covering the window and looked out. It was a perfect looking blue sky without a single cloud to be seen. It was amazing how much something like that could bring a smile to my face because it did. Maybe things would work out like they hadn't in recent weeks. I mean it could only go up from here, right? After everything that had happened, life couldn't get more difficult because that just wouldn't be fair. Eric and I just got married and this business with the witches started up. They cursed him, then Pam and generally raised hell for us. Then they had to start a fight, nearly got my cousin killed and then almost had Eric kill Bill. They could have ruined my family in irreparable ways. That had to be the lowest it could get. Hence why it had to get better. It always did after something this bad happened. And at least I had every I cared about on the same page now, everyone knew what had happened.

Except Alcide.

I don't know why his name had just suddenly popped up in my head since I hadn't once thought about him since we sent him away last night. But when I was thinking about everything that went on in the last few weeks, I had forgotten that he had been a vital part in certain areas. He had helped me with Eric, been my friend when the curse to draw the vampires into the sun had happened, helped saved Sookie when she was hurt and just was there to help in general. And he didn't have to be there at all considering he made his feelings about vampires well known to me. But he still showed up and knew what was going on. And now, I felt an urge to see him and tell him how everything had gone down the night before. He should know.

_1 hour later_

"Oh, so now you want me to be here. I thought this whole situation was none of my business..."

"Alcide shut up, you know I only did that for your own good." I snapped at him, jumping up from my seat on the front porch steps and moving down until I staring at him at eye level and I couldn't help but grin. I had called him after I had thought to let him about last night and he had agreed to come over so we could talk in person. And I had quickly showered and dressed and come out here to wait almost anxiously for his arrival. And when I saw his truck coming down the driveway and then his tall frame emerge from inside of it, I was so happy to see him that I could barely contain myself. He walked across the grass until he was standing at the bottom of the steps and even then he was taller then me. He looked so wonderfully alive and vibrant and I couldn't help myself. I leaned forward and tightly wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders. "I'm so glad to see you."

"Yea I can tell." He replied jokingly, his tone lighter then it had been on the phone and he hugged me back just as tightly. I felt his mind crackle when we touched and I could catch parts of his thoughts as he thought about how nice it was to feel me against him again and how nice I smelled. It didn't bother me though because I was too happy today to care that his thoughts were being inappropriate. I pulled back from him and caught the smile on his handsome face. He was happy too, that was obvious. Maybe a little too happy. "Good to see you alive."

"It's good to be...what are you doing?" I felt Alcide's hand trying to pull my face back towards his and for just a second, he looked like he was going to move in and brush his lips against mine. I felt myself tense up but that didn't stop him. His hand was warm on my face and his other hand was pressing into my lower back, pushing me closer to him. I had to put my hands flat on his chest and shake my head before I finally got through to him and he stopped. He didn't look mortified or even ashamed and that sort of bothered me. I stepped back with a frown. "What the heck was that?"

"That was me trying to kiss you." He shrugged, looking at me slightly apologetically which helped a little but he didn't look like he entirely regretted his actions and his mind showed just how much he didn't regret it. But he had the common courtesy to at least step away as he spoke. "But I guess I overstepped my boundaries."

"Yea, you did." I nodded, trying to sound stern but it was hard to do in his presence, even though what he had tried to do was highly inappropriate considering I was married and in love with Eric. But Alcide was just such a warm and open person that I didn't feel like I could be mad at him for too long. He wasn't one of the bad guys who purposely acted on his desires to hurt someone. So I tried to send a smile at him as I sat down on the steps and motioned for him to do the same. "You know what? It's ok. It's been a crazy 48 hours and everyone isn't exactly acting normally. So you have a free pass."

"Alright." He smiled as he lowered himself down to the steps beside me, the warmth from his body I could feel even though we weren't touching. He folded his arms across the tops of his knees and asked. "So what happened when I left? Was there another fight?"

"Not quite, we went to the shop to try and get Eric back but Antonia had a spell up that no one could pass through and she was taunting us for a while. So it was basically a waiting game until she decided to act." I explained, pushing my hair back from my face when the wind blew it across my eyes. The memories of everything that had happened flashed before my eyes and I shuddered, hardly believing that a confrontation could end the way it had. "She forced Eric to go after Bill and he went through everyone to do it, but right before he was going to stake him, I just did what my instincts told me to do. I used my powers to knock him away from Bill but it didn't just save Bill, it broke the curse too and on Pam. I restored Eric's memories! He remembers everything now."

"That's good, really good." Alcide nodded his head but his voice sounded funny, like he was far away from this spot with me. And maybe his mind was but he was blocking me so I didn't know why. But I had a feeling. Alcide tried to cover it up as best he could. "It's good that things worked out like that..."

"I get the feeling that you're not entirely happy that Eric got his memories back." I frowned, feeling something stir inside of me that said I was on the right track. I may not have been able to read his thoughts right now, but my instincts told me what I needed to know. I could always tell what Alcide was feeling, I never had to guess with him. But still, I had to make sure I wasn't totally reading too much into this. " What? Were you hoping that Eric would never remember himself or me?"

"Maybe I was hoping for that. Maybe I was thinking that if Eric was always cursed then something could change." He shrugged not bypassing the uncomfortable subject even though any other guy would have avoided it like the plague. But Alcide was different, he didn't bullshit around or do anything manipulative to get his way. He just put the truth right out there and even though it made me uncomfortable, I had to respect that he didn't deny what he thought or did. It was refreshing. He looked at me with a warm smile and said. "Does that make me horrible? For wishing your husband never got better?"

"No, just extremely honest." I shook my head slowly, trying to work my way around what I was hearing but there was no way to avoid not feeling the full brunt of what he was implying. Alcide hadn't wanted Eric to ever remember me because if Eric didn't know me or how he felt about me then Alcide could have done something? I lifted my eyes back to his face, finding him still looking at me and I swallowed hard. "So be honest again. You like me, don't you? And not just in a friendly way. It's more then that."

"I think it's always going to be more then that. From that first day I saw you, I never looked at you in a friend type of way. I always wanted you in ways that I shouldn't want you, I've thought about you in ways that I shouldn't be thinking about a married woman. That I would do anything to be the one who you spent your nights with. That's how much more it is." He replied with a grimace but he never once denied any part of it and it was both shocking and really nice to hear him admit the truth without having to pull it out of him. But it was also really bad because now the truth was out there and it could never be pretended like he didn't have feelings for me. Before it was easier because if it hadn't been directly addressed, then I could just simply think I was reading too much into it and could just pretend like he didn't care for me like that. But he had confirmed it, the words were out there with his desires, it couldn't be taken back or ignored. And because of this, things had changed between us right now. He brushed his hand against my hands and I turned to look at him, feeling my stomach drop at the way he was looking at me like he wanted to try to kiss me again but knew that it would be in his best interest to not try ever again. He pulled his hand back and looked at me knowingly. "I should go, shouldn't I?"

"Yea, you should." I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything more then that. Words were dangerous right now. I watched him get up with a sigh and walk across the yard to his truck without saying goodbye. He looked back at me one more time, like he was going to say something else but he decided against it and climbed into his truck before going back down the driveway. I watched him go with a feeling of complete instability. Just when I thought things couldn't get more complicated, life rose up and slapped me in the face with this. Oh this wouldn't be the end of it. I was sure about that.

* * *

><p><em><span>That night<span>_

"Now that is not the sort of face I expected to see on my wife the night after I get my memories back." Eric's teasing voice came from the direction of the doorway of the bedroom and I looked up from where I had been staring out the window to find him leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a smirking look on his face. I wasn't sure how long he had been there watching me as it had been a while since I had been lost in my own thoughts but it had to have at least been over an hour as when I had sat down in the window seat, the sun had just been setting. Now the sky was dark and I couldn't believe I had been sitting here unmoving in the same spot for over 60 minutes. I just couldn't reign in my thoughts for the rest of the day and it wasn't just the confrontation with Alcide that was bothering me, it was everything. But Alcide's confessions had been the catalyst and once he had left, it seemed to have opened the floodgates to everything that had happened since Eric had been cursed. And now here he was in the same room as I was and I had been caught off guard by his arrival. I should have been waiting outside his rest area door but I hadn't and that made me feel bad. Eric came over and sat beside me, his long frame fitting into the seat before saying. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, I've just been going over all the things that happened lately and I guess it kind of bummed me out." I replied, leaving certain tidbits out for the safety of a certain werewolf. If Eric knew what had happened then he would surely be running out to hunt down Alcide and I didn't want that. And besides, there was plenty of other things that could have darkened my mood and God knows I couldn't have forgotten any of that. I sighed and turned to look at him. "Are we ever just going to have a few months of uninterrupted happiness?"

"Probably not, we are not exactly the luckiest of people." He smirked, his head reaching over and traveling up my leg towards my lap, his touch creating an familiar old sensation that made me stomach clench in a very good way. Eric could tell because he drew his fingers even further upward. "But we will have our moments of happiness."

"It's so like you to try and ignore what has happened by covering it up with sex." I tried to sound serious and stern but it was hard to do that when I felt a heat starting to pool between my thighs. I sighed in contentment, it seemed like it had been so long since I had been intimate with Eric and it hadn't been. But the last time we had sex, he didn't know who the hell he was, that kind of lovemaking was totally different. But now he was back to his old self and I felt an old yearning rising up in my chest. I got up on my knees and threw my leg over his lap so I was straddling him. I could see the smirk on his face as I placed my hands on his shoulders. "Can you make me forget what has happened? Even just for a little while?"

"I can do better then a little while." He grinned, grabbing my chin in his hand and planting a kiss on my waiting lips, igniting a fury of butterflies in my stomach. My skin was on fire as his hands ran down my arms, his cold skin such a contrast between my own but I barely noticed it as his tongue ran along my lower lip. All thoughts of the last few weeks went right out of my head as his hands went lower, caressing my lower back where my shirt had risen up and his fingers disappeared even lower. Eric's lips moved from my mouth to my neck, kissing my throat in such a way that my eyes rolled into the back of my head. I felt him nuzzling his face into my hair, breathing deeply even though he didn't need to. I was just tightening my grip on him when he suddenly pulled back and dropped his hands away from my body and a glare came over his face. "Werewolf."

"What?" I asked, leaning back in confusion still riding a slight high from his touch so I wasn't entirely focused. "What do you mean?"

"You smell like werewolf right now and you didn't last night. Why is that?" Eric moved me off him, nearly dumping me on the floor as he got up off the seat and whirled around to face me. He was angry, the waves of his fury coming fast and strong and I felt all my passion and lust in the moment disappear as it dawned on me what he meant. Oh shit. Eric narrowed his eyes. "Allison, explain to me why you smell like a werewolf."

"Do you remember Alcide? And how he helped me while you were cursed?" I knew Eric remembered how Alcide had been around sporadically, I saw those memories along with the others that had flooded his mind when I broke the curse last night. But Eric had never mentioned them and neither had I, I didn't see a reason to with what was going on and I certainly wasn't going to mention this afternoon to him. But I had forgotten that Alcide's scent would linger on me after we had touched and I felt a shudder go through me when I remembered that this would spark a flame of jealousy in him. "Well he came by today and I told him about the confrontation with the witches and..."

"And he touched you. The scent is strong, that means he had contact with you." Eric's eyes gleamed with fury and for just a second, I was scared that he might do something stupid. But for once Eric seemed to compose himself and he simply said. "I'm going downstairs. Do not follow me."

I could only nod before he shot out of the room, knocking into the door on his way out and sending splinters of wood everywhere.

* * *

><p><em><span>A few hours later<span>_

"...So I just need to know one thing..."

I lifted my head up from the book I had been reading and found Eric walking into the room with his hands in his pockets and a much calmer look on his face then had been there before when he left. I had expected him to come find me after he cooled off, so I had picked up a book and vowed to distract myself until then. And sure enough, here he was with that barely controlled look in his eyes. I tossed my book aside and sat up in the window seat with my hands tucked under my arms and my eyebrows raised. Eric was such a hot head when he was jealous and I guess I couldn't blame him for his reaction a few hours ago. We had just been reunited last night and then he was presented with the reinstated knowledge that it had been a werewolf who had been in my life helping me. And a good looking one at that, and Eric was jealous and majorly threatened. I could almost see the humor and cuteness in this all if it hadn't been for the serious determination on his face as he sat back down beside me.

"I'm surprised it took you this long to come back upstairs. I knew you would but I figured it would be sooner then this. Thanks for keeping me waiting." I said jokingly, wanting to ease the air of tension between us as soon as I could because I didn't want our reunion ruined right out of the gate. I tucked my hair behind my ears and sat up with my hands on top of my knees. "Go ahead, what do you want to know?"

"I just need to know if anything has happened between you and the werewolf while I was cursed that I don't have a memory of. Just tell me now." He demanded, his eyes guarded and his face still in concentration like he was trying to figure it out without me having to say it. Eric may look and sound calmer but he was just barely holding his anger back from unleashing it on me or someone else. It was like he was expecting me to say that Alcide and I had been fucking behind his back. I couldn't remember a time when I had been more taken aback from anything he had said and he had said some pretty horrible things. "Did you and him ever..."

"Eric no! Don't say that, don't even think it. It's ridiculous." I felt my mouth fall open as a flood of emotions hit me just then and I couldn't believe he would think that low of me as to think I could ever be a bad wife while he was going through something so horrible. I stared at him in fury, but I was more hurt then mad. "I'm so offended right now. But I have always been faithful to you and that will never change. I'm shocked that you even have to ask me that. Or that you even questioned my love for you."

"It was a stressful situation, I wouldn't have blamed you if you had sought comfort elsewhere while this was going on." He snapped, looking pissed off but I think it was more because he was feeling guilty for essentially accusing me of cheating on him. He looked like he wanted to reach out for me but I shook my head at him. He sat back against the wall with his lower lip caught between his perfect teeth as he stared at me. I could feel the wheels grinding in his head, his thoughts going all over the place as he tried to hold them back from going haywire. He looked like he was giving up on trying to make sense of it and just said. "Sorry."

"Oh, that sounded sincere." I replied sarcastically, pressing my lips together tightly and wishing that I could be mad at him but the truth was that I really couldn't. Because I understood why he thought that I might have sought comfort in another man's arms. A situation like this had the potential to bring out the worse in people and I was too nice to not know that. I looked at Eric and shrugged. "It's fine."

"What?" He cocked his head to the side and looked at me with a frown.

"I said it's fine." I forced myself to let go of the anger I felt and put a smile on my face as I reached across the space between us and touched my fingers to his arm. "The stress from waking up from this curse is getting to everyone. It will take some time to get back in the groove."

"I am sorry." He offered hesitantly, snaking his arm around my waist and pulling me across the seat until I was cuddled up to his side with my cheek against his chest. It felt nice to be back in his arms even after the near fight we almost had. He laid his chin on the top of my head and said. "Thank you for breaking the curse. I am very grateful."

"Well, I kind of did it by accident but it got the result I wanted. And even if I had known what to do, I still would have done it. I did kind of miss you." I smiled slightly, deciding right then and there to just let go, let it all go. There would never be all that much time when things were calm in our lives and I wasn't going to waste these few moments being mad or offended by him. I lifted my head off his chest so I could look at his face. "I really missed you."

"I missed you too." He grinned before leaning down to kiss me again and I actually had the sense that it might be ok now.


	17. Dark was the night

**Chapter 17 Dark was the night **

"We have a problem."

"That always means something really bad. I knew the peace wouldn't last but I didn't think it would end this quickly." I sighed and sat up on the couch where I had been lying with Eric since he had woken up at sunset and stared across the room where Bill and Sookie stood wearing the same frazzled expression that immediately put me on edge. How could it not? They burst in here barely an hour after the sun had gone done looking panicked and worried and that wasn't just because of something simple. It always meant something big and I was afraid to even ask what that could be. It couldn't be worse then what had already happened just the night before. Or the night before that when Eric got his memories back, that had been a night to worry about. But something told me that what Bill had come here to say was worse then the confrontation on the streets. It was much worse because Bill had the same look on his face that he had worn during the war with the Dallas coven, the look that said things could end even worse then any of us had imagined. Eric was already on his feet, hands on his hips and a ready frown on his face. I too got to my feet, wrapping my arm around myself as Bill and Sookie walked in. "What's going on?"

"I was finishing my shift tonight when Holly walked into the bar in a panic. She just came from the shop and found out that Antonia or Marnie or whoever she is, plans on wrecking havoc on Bon Temps in retaliation for her humiliation last night..." Sookie spoke very fast, showing that she was nervous and worried and her words almost ran together as she forced them out. Her mind was just a blur and I couldn't make out anything from it,not even a word. That made my stomach clench. If her mind was moving so rapidly out of nervousness then that meant this was a more serious situation then we have ever faced before. Antonia was more powerful alone then the Dallas coven had been together. And that was terrifying enough, but all that power concentrated into one person was a recipe for disaster. "She wants to make an example of what it means to cross her and if she had to do it at the expense of the human public then that is what she is going to do."

"We can't let her do that, we can't sit back and not do anything." I said when I found my voice again. I stepped up to Eric's side, looking up at him and then over at the other half of our family and even though I hated what I was about to say, I needed to say it. "I don't know about you guys, but I think we need to fight one last time."

"She's right." Eric agreed with me before Bill did, even though both their minds were shouting at me that we were on the same page. But it was Eric who had said it out loud first and he turned his face down to look at me. He looked both shaken and fiercely determined, a mixture that I knew would accompany a statement that I would not like and have no choice but to follow. And a second later, the bomb landed. "We're going back there to investigate and you two are going to stay right here. There is no debating it."

"Of course there isn't. You two always make the decisions despite our opinions." I said sarcastically, not thrilled that not only was there going to be another confrontation and possible fight, but also that I was being forced to stay behind once again. This could be dangerous and they were going there alone, while we we forced to stay at the house. I looked up at Eric. "I guess I should just be happy that you didn't resort to drugging me to keep me out of this fight."

"Ooo, that was saucy." Eric's tense expression gave way to a look much more exuberant and desirable and for just a second I forgot how serious things were and just smiled back at him. He always liked it when I was a little bit of a smart ass once in a while. He smirked at me. "Life or death situations always brings out your sarcastic side. I like that."

"Whatever Eric. Just do what you have to do and I will stay here with Sookie while you and Bill play hero." I shook my head slowly, glancing at Sookie to see her doing the same thing at Bill. She didn't like staying behind anymore then I did, but we both knew going against their wishes would distract them and any distraction when dealing with Antonia was bad. So we had to swallow our pride and just do what we didn't want to do. I turned back to Eric and grabbed a fistful of his black shirt in my hand and yanked him closer to me. "Under no circumstances are you to do anything rash like you did the last time. Because if you do and you leave me alone again, then I swear to God Eric Northman, I will kill you myself."

"See? I like it when you're like this. It's very hot." He smirked at me, grabbing my hand and releasing my fingers from his shirt before grabbing my face in a hot kiss. I barely had a second to respond before a gust of wind blew my hair back and he was gone and out the door. I looked up to see Bill kissing Sookie before he too followed in Eric's footsteps and shot out the door, leaving the two of us alone. We looked at each other and I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was thinking.

"Why do I have the feeling that those two are about to get into a whole lot of trouble?"

* * *

><p><em><span>45 minutes later<span>_

"Godric, why are we in Bon Temps? What's going on?"

"I felt something through my bond to Eric. I think he's in trouble." Godric mumbled to the group behind him as they ran through the dark cemetery of the small town towards the old Compton house where Godric knew he would find Eric. He had felt a flash of undiluted fear, something he didn't often feel from Eric as it took a lot to scare him. So when even the smallest amount of fear got through, that was cause for concern. And that was why he had left Shreveport where he had been with Louie, Helen, Alec and Gabriel and flew here, desperate to find his progeny before something happened. Louie had been the first to follow him and the others came as well even though Godric didn't want any one else getting involved. He knew that whatever was going on right now was dangerous, especially with Antonia still at large and he suspected that she was behind Eric's sudden flood of emotions. He paused briefly to look over his shoulder to find the others still there and he shook his head. "This is the point to turn back if you are having any..."

"No one is having doubts about being here Godric. If you were going to check out possible danger then so are we.." Louie answered for them, a smirk spreading across his lips as they exited the cemetery and breezed through the treeline almost noiselessly. Louie nodded at him and for just a second Godric remembered what it was like to have his best friend back, his vampire brother who besides Allison and Helen, was the only one who knew his deepest secrets. They had a long way to go before they could ever reclaim what they once had but Godric was certain that it could happen. As they came out of the woods, Godric wanted to say something to Louie about his gratitude of having his friend back but Louie spoke first. "Oh shit."

"What...fuck this is bad." Helen gasped out quietly, her eyes drifting across the lawn towards the house not standing too far away and her eyes got large and full of fear. Godric followed the direction of her gaze and when he saw what she saw, he too drew in an unnecessary breath. Helen paused in mid step and said. "Oh God, Eric and Bill are..."

"They're imprisoned in silver and surrounded by fire wood." Godric finished for her, watching as both his progeny and Bill turned their heads towards them and Godric didn't waste another second in dashing across the lawn to them. Eric and Bill were silvered and chained to a pole in the middle of a pile of wood, intended to be set on fire, only there was no one in sight to do that. But that was a good thing, because without any resistance then Godric could set them free. But even as he reached the edge of the wood pile, he knew that trouble was far from over. "Eric, what the..."

"You need to get out of here, right now!" Eric said roughly, his eyes narrowing quickly as they darted around the edge of the property but there was nothing to see and yet he remained on alert. "That witch was waiting for us when we got here and she got control of us. You need to leave before she comes back..."

"I'm not leaving you here alone." Godric cut him off, shaking his head as he assessed the sight in front of him, trying to find a way to get through the silver to the two vampires. But the pole was completely encased in silver, like it was done deliberately for the sole purpose that no vampire could get through to help them. Like someone saw this coming. He looked up at Eric. "Don't worry my son, I will find a way to get through to you."

"I don't think its nice to make promises you can't keep.." Antonia's voice came out of the darkness behind the wood pile and all the seven vampires shot their heads in her direction, watching the possessed body step out from around the corner of the house with a grin. She nodded at Eric and Bill like she was beyond happy that she had subdued them to this point. She didn't even look concerned as she approached an entire group of vampires, she just strolled towards them with her arms crossed. "But this could be fun to see you try.."

"I'm going to kill yo..." Godric had made a move to shoot over towards Antonia, intending to break her neck before he even finished his sentence. But he found that as he went to take another step, his movements were frozen like he had been turned to steel. But then a second later he spotted Antonia raising her arms and he found himself flying through the air but not by his own accord. He saw flashes of the others doing the same thing but they all looked like they were trying to fight back against it as he was. He came to a stop when his back slammed up against something wooden, his arms yanked down to his sides as yards of silver and chain crossed over his chest and held him against the pole like it had done to his progeny. He heard Antonia's laugh echoing in his ear as he watched her walking in between the poles where every single vampire had been imprisoned and it infuriated him. "You're going..."

"Shut up, it's not time to listen to your threats. Now is the time to bargain." She stated, snapping her fingers and Godric heard his own voice going silent despite his attempts to continue yelling. She grinned and looked around at the silent vampires and smirked even more before saying something that would have made Godric's heart stop had it still been beating. "We'll see just how much those idiot girls love you and how far they're willing to go to save you."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Shreveport<span>_

"Sookie, it's been almost 2 hours since they left and we haven't heard anything from them. I'm starting to get worried." I told my cousin as I paced across the front hallway for what seemed like the millionth time that night and a quick glance at my blonde cousin showed they she too was doing the same thing, only it was me who had the nerve to break the silence that had been hanging between us since our husbands had left the house. We had both tried to remain calm, thinking this would turn out to be nothing or if it was something then they would have come back and told us they needed back up. But there had been no sigh of their return, no phone call and then there was the matter of feeling a shudder coming through my bond to Eric and now Godric that made me worry even more. Godric must be in the same place as Eric, their feelings were coming through to me very closely so I could tell they were in the same location. And that only freaked me out more. I paused on the tiled floor, my bare feet feeling the coolness before I said. "Something's wrong, I know it is. I keep feeling Godric and Eric and I know you feel Bill."

"I do, I've been feeling him since he left and I know he is trying to block me but I can still feel that something is wrong." She couldn't deny that there was this heavy cloud of doom and apprehension hanging over us, it was one of those things that was undeniable. Our husbands went to investigate a witch attack and they hadn't returned. And this witch had caused us problems for weeks. We didn't take any of this lightly. Sookie turned to look at me. "This is bad isn't it? That they're not back yet?"

"It was bad when they left, it's just more obvious now." I mumbled, moving over to the staircase and sat down on the second step with my chin in my hands and a frown on my face. I didn't know what to do. Well actually that was a lie because I did know what I wanted to do, but I knew I shouldn't do it. "I just don't want to think about them being in trouble or else I will never be able to just sit here."

"Well I can't sit here, I'm going nuts." Sookie threw up her arms in frustration, never one to be able to hide her emotions if she was frazzled and she stood there in front of me with her hands on her hips and a very bad look on her face. "I'll make a deal with you, if you come with me to Bon Temps to look for them then you can blame me if they get mad at us. Just say that I forced you to."

"They'll never believe us, but ok. Let's go..."

_25 minutes later_

"What...the...fuck!"

"I echo that sentiment exactly." I said quietly to my cousin as we stood on the edge of the lawn at her house and looked in horror at the sight before us. We knew it would be bad because from the moment we left the house, we had felt this hard ball of fear hit us in the stomach as we drove like maniacs back to Bon Temps but we didn't know exactly what we would find. We didn't vocalize our fears but that didn't mean we didn't know what the others was thinking. Fear had a way of keeping out minds completely open to each other so she was seeing my worse case scenario and I was seeing hers. And as we reached home, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary but something pulled us to come here to her house and now we understood why we had felt like something was wrong and why we had imagined the worse. Because there out in front of us was our husbands, silvered to wooden poles along with Godric, Louie, Helen, Alec and Gabriel. They were all in the same situation and no one in sight to show who was responsible for it. But it didn't take a genius to figure out who had the power to overpower a bunch of vampires. I barely took a chance to look at Sookie and know she was thinking of doing the same thing as I was before I started running. "Eric!"

"No! Allison, get away now!" Eric's voice was stern and harsh but scared and it didn't register to me until I was already in the midst of the circle of wooden poles holding my friends and loved ones hostage. Eric's warning was too late as Sookie and I were already there and looking around for a way to knock down the wooden poles without hurting them or worse, killing them. Eric's eyes were on my face and he looked furious. "Don't make me ask again..."

Sookie and I both ignored the warning, which turned out to be a mistake we would live to regret. What happened next happened so fast that we almost didn't know what was going on. A gust of wind blew up and at first I thought that another vampire was arriving on the scene, but it wasn't a vampire. It was transparent, ghostly looking wall that rose up around the outside of the circle of wooden poles, a spell wall trapping us. My stomach dropped down to my feet as my head snapped around to find the one responsible for it and a second later she appeared, appearing almost out of nowhere but she really just moved aside a small part in the spell wall and stepped through. Antonia looked at us through Marnie's mousy brown eyes and for the first time in my life with all the things that had happened to me, I finally saw what true evil looked like. And it was this woman standing a few feet away from us, looking like she wanted nothing more then to wipe us all out within a few minutes. And who knows, she just might do that.

"I knew you would show up, it was only a matter of time." Antonia cackled, uncrossing her arms as she slowly looked around at all the faces of the vampires staring at her with a glare. She must have cast a spell on them because Eric was the only one that seemed able to talk. She sent a smirk in our direction and I instinctively found myself stepping in front of Sookie. She just shook her head and laughed again before raising her hands. "Time to play."

"No!" Sookie screamed just as a wall of fire erupted up from the base of each pole and the flames caught on to the wood pile at the bottom and began to rise. She made a jump forward but I grabbed her arm and tugged her back despite her struggling against me. The silence spell must have broken because the air was suddenly filled with the sounds of agonized screams from all seven vampires and it took all I had not to scream along with them. Sookie fought against me. "No, stop it. You'll kill them."

"That's the plan." Antonia said carelessly, her face showing no remorse and that just angered me to no limit. That look on her face, that look of not caring that she was about to kill all these people who meant so much to us just made me less scared and more pissed off. She seemed to guess what I was thinking because she said. "Am I making you angry?"

"You're damn right I'm angry." I snapped, throwing up my hands without thinking about it and I watched with a smirk as the beam of light erupted from my palms and shot towards Antonia. Maybe I could subdue her long enough to break the spells again and release the vampires. Then it would be ok, the silver wouldn't hurt me and once Eric and the others were free then it would be fine. I just had to fight Antonia off long enough to do that. But it wasn't like the night before, Antonia was ready for me and my powers, and probably had been waiting for this the whole time. She managed to deflect the light, sending it away from her right before I saw her muttered something and snap her fingers. I felt my left arm snap before I could lower it, a sickeningly sharp pain hitting me and stealing the breath from my lungs as my light disappeared and I almost crumbled to the ground at the sudden break. A batch of hot tears fell down my face as I cradled my arm against me and tried to remember to breathe. "Fuck!"

"Allie!" Sookie was at my side instantly, her fight face gone and replaced with an expression of worry and concern as her hands went to my shoulders to turn me towards her. "Allie don't do that again. You're just going to make her mad."

"I can deal with a broken arm, but I can't deal with her trying to kill my husband loved ones. It's not going to happen." I gasped out in between waves of pain as I glared across the circle at Antonia who was laughing as lightly as if she had just heard the funniest thing in the world. Seeing her unmoved by what she had done made me forget the pain and even though Sookie tried to stop me from doing it again, I shoved her aside and threw out my right arm out again. But Antonia was faster then she was the first time and my light didn't even reach her before she snapped her fingers again and I felt my leg collapse under me, it too was also broken. I heard a terrible scream came out of my mouth as I fell to the ground, unable to remain upright as the pain became too much to look passed. I felt the coldness of the grass on my skin as I fell to my side, the sounds of the screams from the vampires getting louder as they now caught fire. I could barely grab my cousin as I said. "Sookie.."

"I thought you were smarter then this, I thought you knew when to quit. But I guess not. And now it's up to me to teach you when to just lay down and die." Antonia's voice was steady and calm as she approached Sookie and I. Her gaze never wavered as she slowly walked towards us, almost like she wanted to draw out this moment as along as she could. She smirked. "It won't hurt...much."

Sookie and I squeezed our eyes shut, prepared to die at any second as we reached out for each other at the same time in our last moment alive. But then something happened that no one, including Antonia expected. One moment she was walking towards us, ready to cast some killing spell and the next chaos erupted and things went haywire. The spell wall suddenly dropped away, leaving a pathway clear for us to escape if we could. The fire that surrounded each of the poles that had been burning the vampires was extinguished and the only thing that remained from it was a choking thick smoke, but they were ok. Antonia looked around furiously, her attention diverted away from us for the moment and back towards the cemetery and even through the pain I was in was horrible and tears stung at my eyes, I still could see the expression on the witches face darken. Sookie and I turned our heads to see what she was looking at to make her so furious and all I could make out was 5 pale figures approaching, 5 ghostly looking figures.

"Sookie is that..." I squinted my eyes as best I could but I couldn't see the faces as well and yet I still knew there was something familiar looking about these ghosts. It didn't scare me to see that ghosts were coming towards us, nothing scared me much anymore or surprised me. But what did surprise me was how familiar they all looked. Too familiar to ignore who they were. "Are they..."

"It's our parents...and Gran." Sookie's voice was frozen, like she was in so much shock that ice had been driven into her lungs. That was how cold she sounded. I felt her hands still gripping my arm but it was like I wasn't even attached to my own body anymore. I was seeing my parents for the first time in almost 21 years and it felt both foreign and familiar and saddening all at the same time. They looked just the same as they did as when I could last remember them, my childhood memories holding on tightly to their faces so I could never forget and I never did. And seeing them approach the circle, looking transparent but alive was a jolt to my heart and Sookie was having the same emotional breakdown that I was. Her face was stained with tears and one hand came up to cover her mouth but I still heard her voice. "Oh my God."

"It's ok Sookie, it's going to be alright. We're here to help." Gran said calmly, sounding just as she did at the time of her death. That calm, wise voice that had always taken care of everything and for just a second I felt like I was a kid again when I had come home with scrapes and bruises and she had made it alright. She passed by us, her eyes drifting down to us. "Allison, it will be ok. We're going to take her away, take her spirit to rest. So she can't hurt anyone else..."

"Oh no you're not." Antonia sounded scared, furious but scared and she began backing away like there was the potential that she could be overpowered. I couldn't see how but she was moving away and she wouldn't be doing that if it wasn't possible. The next few moments were so weird that I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Gran had been standing right by us as she was talking but now she seemed to surge forward with the speed of a vampire, rushing up to Antonia and driving her arm all the way down her throat. It was the craziest thing I had ever seen and as she yanked her arm back out, I caught the smallest glimpse of a dark haired, tan skimmed woman in an old dirty dress that must have been what Antonia looked like when she had been alive. Now she was transparent like Gran and my parents, only she seemed to be getting lighter and lighter, drifting away with a silent scream until she completely was gone and there was nothing left to show she had been here but a cowering Marnie on the grass. The silence fell heavy on the cold night as the spirits that remained stepped closer to us.

"Mom, dad..." Sookie couldn't say more then this as her tears seemed to choke out her ability to speak. She left my side, standing up so she could look at her parents in the face for the first time since she was 6 years old and her face cringed. "Oh God, I miss you guys so much.."

"We miss you too. Even in death we still miss you, and Jason." Sookie's mother was the first to speak and even though I had been younger then her when they died in that flood, I still remembered the sound of her voice. I momentarily forgot the pain of my injuries as I watched my aunt look at her daughter like no time had passed at all. "We don't have much time but I just wanted to say that I'm so sorry that it happened so suddenly. I'm so sorry that we left you and Jason alone."

"It wasn't fair for you kids to lose us this quickly, it just wasn't." Gran spoke up, her eyes back on us and taking no notice of the vampires or anything else. And for just a second, I could imagine that nothing had changed, no tragedy had happened, no vampires or werewolves or witches had come out of hiding. It was just us humans, still alive and with each other like we should have been this whole time. I really could have pretended like nothing had ever happened if it weren't for what was said next.

"Allison..." It was my mother this time, and I had to open my eyes to find her on the ground next to me, her eyes that were nothing like mine but I still found familiarity in them. She looked so real that I wanted to reach out and touch her but my hand would have just gone through. I could only look at her as she studied me with what could only be shame and regret. "I am so sorry your father and I took our own lives, we shouldn't have allowed our grief to get the better of us like that. We left you alone..."

"I...I miss you. And Dad." I could barely respond through the pain and tears that were surging through my body at this moment. I was beside myself, not sure how I was still conscious and I could barely focus on what was going on around me. But considering that this was the last time I might ever get to talk to them, I had to just push through. "I wish you both were still here."

"We always watch over you, we still get to witness the moments of your life, even if you cant see us." I couldn't see my dad when he spoke but I knew he was still there. Just like they all were still there, it just wouldn't be forever. "We saw you get married and we will see the rest of your life unfold, even if you can't see us..."

"It's time." Gran's voice said, cutting off my dad and I saw her step to the side of my mother, her ghostly hands pulling my mom away and to her feet. "We have to say goodbye."

Sookie was back at my side when they started leaving us, moving backwards slowly with their hands raised in a wave as their bodies became more transparent with every step they took. The longer I watched them go, the more I became aware of my pain again and when they finally disappeared, I felt a new batch of tears roll down my faces. For just a second, we just sat there not moving, just staring at the spot where our family had left us without saying a word. And then just like before, things moved quickly again. Sookie left me again and I knew she had gone to release the vampires since I couldn't do it myself. I sat there on the grass holding my arm, trying not to scream from the pain of my broken leg even though I was breathing out heavily through my nose like it was a struggle to breathe. Eric was the first to get free and I knew this because he was at my side with his bloody wrist against my lips soon after Sookie had left me on the grass. I didn't fight him and just took the blood willingly, too much in pain to still be disgusted by this act. I couldn't bear to feel any more pain tonight, seeing my parents and Gran and aunt and uncle had done me in and I just needed to take away some of the pain and Eric could do that. His arm stayed locked around me and he didn't say anything, just kept his wrist at my mouth until I could pull away. I felt the last of the blood slide down my throat, piecing my bones back together until I could finally push his arm away and get to my feet.

"Are you ok?" I surprised him by asking this first, even as his hands went to my face and his eyes looked over me like he was still expecting me to be hurt. But I wasn't, not in the slightest. My arm and leg were like new again, not hurting at all but I still moved them for his benefit before looking over him. He looked a little crispy, a little too burnt, but he was alive and ok. "You're ok."

"Of course I am, I had to be or else you would have killed me remember?" He smirked at me before wrapping his arm around me and pulled me to his side before we walked across the lawn to where the others had gathered in a huddle and were looking down at something. Eric frowned. "What are they looking at?"

"I think..Marnie..." I replied, my face getting tight as we reached them and pushed through the circle until we could see what they were seeing. Marnie was curled up into a tight ball with her arms over her head, blocking out her face from us like she feared we could hurt her just by looking at her. She was no longer a threat to any of us now that Antonia's spirit had been yanked out of her. But she had still been responsible for bringing Antonia back and that couldn't be ignored. After sending Godric and the others a look that I was fine, I stared back down at the woman who had nearly ruined everything and asked. "So...what do we do with her now?"

* * *

><p><em><span>20 minutes later<span>_

"Well, well, well. I have to say that I am very much surprised that you actually managed to fix this when I told you to. Never thought that would happen."

"Thank you Ms. Flanagan, now my life is complete knowing that I have finally done something to please you." Bill replied sarcastically, fighting the urge to roll his eyes as he stood with the much older female vampire as her crowd of guards surrounded the scared and subdued Marnie and began cuffing her tightly so they could take her away. It was quite a change from the scene that had unfolded just little over 30 minutes out on the lawn. So much emotion, so much energy had been in the air as Antonia's spirit was finally removed from Marnie's body and taken away to never cause harm again, leaving only an empty shell behind who was a lot easier to deal with then the ghost possessing her. But still it was essential to notify Nan about what happened and she insisted on showing up to take Marnie into custody and finish dealing with her the way that had been intended since the beginning. Bill didn't like it but he had to do it or else Nan would never leave them alone and after what had happened in the past few weeks, they all needed some calm for once so he had made the call while Louie, Alec, Gabriel and Helen had left the house and Godric, Eric, Sookie and Allison had retreated to the upstairs. No one wanted to deal with Nan and Bill wished he could have hidden away like the rest of them had, especially when Nan was giving him hell for letting this go on as long as it had. "Can we just put this all to rest for once? The crisis has passed and things have finally settled down. Is it absolutely necessary for you to be riding me this hard? I fixed the problem didn't I?"

"Yes you did and I should be commending you on finishing the job. Even though you screwed it up more then a few times." Nan smirked at him like she knew she would have the last word no matter what and watched as the guards had finished cuffing Marnie and were now standing close by with a watchful eye on her. Nan shook her head, still not looking entirely satisfied. "This could have been bad Bill, this could have ended much worse if it hadn't..."

"I am aware of that and I agree it could have been a disaster, but it wasn't. And that is what you need to remember." Bill shot back, not ready to just Nan walk over him like she was in charge. She use to be in charge completely before but she had made him King and now the control was shared. She couldn't just act like she had the sole responsibility anymore. He turned to face her and narrowed his eyes so she knew he was being serious. "The job is done, I think you can leave now."

"Trust me, I have no desire to spend any more time in this rinky dink town then I have to." She replied, rolling her eyes before raising her hand to the group of guards in the living room where Marnie was and motioned to the door. The vampire guards nodded and then roughly grabbed the near catatonic witch and moved towards the open doorway. Nan grinned and turned back to Bill. "I'll say good night now. I have a more pressing matter of finding out who started all this and standing here talking to you is cutting in to that precious time."

"Whose behind it? What do you mean? It was that witch who conjured up Antonia's spirit, the one you just had dragged out of this house." Bill didn't often find himself stumped but he definitely was right now. Nan was questioning who was responsible for all this? She was off her rocker if she couldn't accept what was right in front of her. "This just happened. There is no way someone besides her was behind it."

"Don't be naïve Bill, you don't actually believe that do you?" Nan asked, her pale face twitching in amusement. "You do don't you?"

"Why shouldn't I? There is no evidence to the contrary to suggest otherwise." Bill snapped, his frown deepening as he tried to see what she was seeing and he just couldn't. "Marnie did this, no one else."

"Really Bill? You honestly think that this weak old witch was clever enough to conjure up the spirit of a powerful necromancer on her own?" Nan raised her eyebrows so high they nearly disappeared into her hairline. She looked like she was thinking that he was an idiot and after the way she just phrased her suspicions, Bill was thinking that she might be right. She moved towards the door with her hands in the pockets of her leather coat and sighed. "There's no way this was just her. Someone put her up to it. And I'm going to find out who. I will keep you informed."

"Yea, you do that." Bill followed her to the door, maintaining his composed look until she was out on the porch and then he slammed the door shut. He stared at the wood for a minute, just shaking his head and trying to make sense of what Nan had said to him. Was it at all possible that Marnie hadn't been acting alone in this? Could there be more danger out there that hadn't shown itself yet?

* * *

><p><em><span>45 minutes later<span>_

"You know, it wasn't fair for you guys to just show up like that and then leave. I barely remember you and then you appear, get into my heart and leave me again, that's just unacceptable." I whispered out loud in the empty night air as I moved across the grass towards the tombstones that I hadn't visited in a few years but now had a reason to after the events of tonight. I reached my parents burial plot and sank down into the grass on my knees with my hair blowing across my face but I barely noticed it as I stared at the tombstone sitting in front of me with the names of my mother and father staring at me in big bold letters. I felt my chest get weak and I sat down all the way to the ground with my knees drawn up to me. Now I knew why I didn't like coming here often. It always filled me with sadness and longing. Some people found it helpful but it just weakened me for what I could not have. "Why are you always leaving?"

My question went unanswered of course but I guess I half expected it to have some kind of response. After all, I never thought I would see my parents spirits come to the aid of me and my loved ones. When Sookie and I went after Bill and Eric, I never prepared myself as well for the unexpected as I should have. I wasn't prepared to see my parents, my aunt and uncle, or my grandmother. But especially not my parents and maybe that is what drove me to sneak out of the house and high tail here into the graveyard to find their resting spot. Eric and Godric had been downstairs with Sookie and Bill and somehow I had managed to get out of the house without them suspecting anything. I didn't want anyone following me here when I came to see my parents, but now that I was sitting here alone in the grass in the dark, I kind of wished that I had Eric next to me or Godric even. I felt so alone tonight after the final confrontation and not even the relief of knowing the trouble was gone could comfort me. It was a feeling that I hadn't felt in so long but it was flooding back to me now as I stared at the tombstones and wished as hard as hell that I have even just a brief repeat of what had happened.

"Um, could you do me a favor? Could you just appear one more time?" I already felt the tears sliding down my face as I asked this and even then I felt stupid for asking it. But I just couldn't help myself. Seeing them, even in ghost form had reopened old wounds that would never quite heal and I felt the anguish of not having them in my life all over again. And maybe that was why I had come here alone, so no one would have to see me ask something so silly. Or if it did miraculously happen, then I just wanted it to be me with them. I looked around but there was nothing to see. It was just me. "Just...one more time, and then I will be ok with letting you go."

They didn't appear and I didn't hear anything either. At least not anything relating to them. The only sound was the wind blowing through the trees and the noise of the occasional car passing by on the road. But no footsteps, no voices, no spirits. It was just me. I was alone, alone like I had been for most of my 24 years on this earth. And to most people, that wasn't entirely true because I had Sookie and Jason and Gran and all my friends. But I had lost so many family members, including the two most important ones, so I did still feel alone. No kid should lose their parents that young or at all, but especially not that young. And I felt like I was a little girl all over again as I got back to my feet with tears streaming down my face as I stared at their graves. They weren't coming back, they had served their purpose and they were back at peace. They couldn't come back, I was alone. But not for long as I felt two sudden gusts of wind at my back and I didn't have to look to know it was Eric and Godric.

"Allison..."Godric began, his hand brushing against my arm as he spoke, his voice sounding so gentle and kind that I knew he must have felt the distress through our blood bond as well as Eric and that's what had lead them to showing up here. Godric turned me around to face them and even then I tried to hide the fact that I was crying. But Godric grabbed my chin in his palm and pulled my face back up. "You shouldn't have come by yourself..."

"Don't...not right now..." I told him sternly just as another set of tears rolled down my cheeks. I went to wipe them away but found that Eric's hands were already doing that. I looked up at him and even in the dark I could just make out his face staring at me but I couldn't read his expression. And I could have read his mind but I knew him so well that I didn't even have to do that. He knew what I was feeling and would have known even if I was blocking the blood bond. I didn't even have to say it but I did. "I miss them and I feel alone without them here. They were suppose to be here."

"I know..." Eric held my face in between his hands, his thumbs ready to wipe any more tears away should they fall. His touch opened up the doorway to our minds and I saw that he was thinking about me but also his own situation. He too had lost his parents and his baby sister a thousand years ago, he too suffered just as I was and still did. But he didn't want to make this about him, he just wanted to show that for one instance, he knew exactly what I was feeling. "I know you're sad. But you're not alone."

"He's right. You have Sookie and Bill and your friends. And Eric and I are your family now..." Godric said as he wrapped an arm around my waist and stepped closer to embrace me. Things hadn't been the best recently with Godric, but despite all our troubles, I still knew deep down that he cared and wanted to be there for me. I felt his other hand reach out passed me and he must have been reaching for Eric because I felt my husband step closer with his arms around me. Godric brushed his lips against my forehead in a very paternal way. "We're your family and we won't ever leave you."

"You won't lose us, you won't lose anything anymore." Eric assured me, his hands came around my hips and held on to me securely against him. I felt my shoulders relax slightly, knowing he was there was always going to make me feel better. Eric was a vampire, he couldn't die as easily as my family members had, he would be with me longer then they had. I would most likely die before he did, so when he said I wouldn't lose him or Godric, then I had to believe it. They were too strong to be taken down, simple as that. Eric's arms crisscrossed around me before he said. "This is it, nothing else will change."

"I'm not so sure that will ever be the case..."

**A/N: And there you have it, Antonia has finally been defeated and Nan has taken Marnie into custody. And all is right in the world. Or is it? Nan seems very certain that Marnie was put up to this chaos by someone else and you find out whether iit is true in the finale. And that last chapter i hope to post sometime this week. PLease review and enjoy. And stay tuned for the 6th Installment of this series**


	18. One thing remains

**Chapter 18 One thing remains**

_The next night_

"What do you mean you're moving? You can't move, I just started to get to know you again..." I felt my mouth fall open in shock as I sat there in an apartment I hadn't been in before and thought I would be visiting more often after I made the decision to come here tonight. But the moment I walked through the doorway of the place my birth mother lived in and saw the boxes, I knew something wasn't right at all and after some prodding, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I had woken up this morning finally feeling a sense of calm in my life now that things with Antonia had been resolved and after trying to keep myself busy for the entire day until I could see Eric, I decided to pass the last of the few hours left before nightfall visiting Molly since I hadn't really had contact with her for a few weeks now. I wanted her to know that everything was ok and things were back to normal and the crisis had passed. She hadn't wanted to be too deeply involved in this mess and I totally understood why. She had another daughter to worry about, one that needed her more then I did, so I didn't blame here for not wanting to be anywhere near this necromancer problem. But now that it had passed, I wanted to assure her that life was going to be ok now. But it was her who had something to tell, as it hadn't been more then 15 minutes since I arrived before she was telling me of her plans to move to the other side of the country. I chewed on my bottom lip before saying. "California? Why the hell would you move there? And why?"

"Can I just say that this has nothing to do with you at all? Not in the slightest." Molly told me, sitting down on the other side of the couch with her arm stretched out across the back of it as she blew a piece of dark hair out of her eyes. She did look like she felt bad for springing this on me and I suppose it was partially my fault for just showing up. But still, this was a shock to me and she could tell. "It's not about me not wanting us to forge a relationship..."

"Then what is it about, because I'm kind of confused here..." I shot back with a frown, trying to see through the haze of confusion but I couldn't. "I mean, we haven't really talked in a while and then all of a sudden, you just decided to up and move."

"I didn't just decide it on a whim, it's been in my mind for a few months. I just didn't finalize things until recently." She said, dropping her hands down to her lap as she looked around the living room with her lips pressed tightly together with a look that said this wasn't easy for her either. "With all this trouble that has gone on since I resurrected you and we came back into each others lives, it just made me look at the bigger picture..."

"Which is..." I raised my eyebrows, already seeing where she was going with this but I needed to hear her say it.

"There's too much chaos situated around this area of the country and I know there are vampires everywhere as well as trouble, but it seems like Bon Temps and Shreveport and the south in general is a mecca for this kind of stuff. And I want to try and limit that in my life, especially for Susan's sake." She explained, glancing down the hallway to the closed bedroom door where her daughter, my half sister was sleeping and she sighed. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but this wasn't about me at all. The world did not revolve around me and her decision to leave was about protecting her daughter and keeping herself safe so she could be there for Susan. It wasn't so much about me, but it still was a little sad. "I don't want Susan to be raised around this kind of stuff. She's just a little kid, she needs to have as stable a life as I can give her."

"I mean, I guess I understand that. Because I've been through enough with vampires and witches and werewolves to understand the need to get away." I nodded, thinking of the months I had spent out of Bon Temps in Mystic Falls when things had become too much to deal with. So in a way, I knew exactly how she felt. And it made sense, even if I didn't like it. "But what will happen to us?"

"We'll still see each other, we'll talk and write and I will come visit or you can come visit. We'll figure it out." Molly reached over and pat my hand, sending a smile my way that did lift my spirits a little bit but I still couldn't help but feel like I was losing something. "Don't worry, we won't lose touch. I fought hard to get back in your life again, I won't give up this easily just because I'm living across the country."

"I never thought I wanted to know you,but now that I know you I don't want to let go." I said, thinking back to the beginning when I found out I was adopted and then when Molly first made her presence known and how she had been responsible for resurrecting me. And all the stuff that had happened in between then and now. It had pulled us closer together and if we could survive all that, then we could deal with something as simple as her living across the country. I looked at her again. "Promise me we won't lose touch."

"Never, as long as we are both alive, then we will always have contact. That won't ever change."

* * *

><p><em><span>Back in Shreveport<span>_

"No please, don't kill me. I didn't mean any harm."

"Oh shut it witch, your voice is grating and getting on my nerves." Nan snapped at the mousy brown witch in the cell before her and watched in satisfaction as Marnie cowered back against the cement wall in fear like she had been doing since Nan had come down those steps to interrogate her. Nan had been looking forward to this since last night, wanting to get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible and now that she was down here, she had a feeling that it might take some time to drag it out of the necromancer. She couldn't just kill her right off the bat or the information would die with her. And if it proved to be something bigger then they thought, she could use to make Bill Compton squirm and do some more dirty work for her. After all, she never got tired of messing with him or Eric Northman, they were her favorite punching bags. She came to a stop in front of the iron bars and crossed her arms, her stern eyes looking at the pathetic sobbing mess on the floor and rolled her eyes. "And do not make that noise, it's pissing me off. I'm not going to kill you..."

"You're not?" Marnie lifted her head hesitantly, her face showing the extent of her shock as she uncurled herself and got to her feet, using the wall for support. "But I thought you..."

"I only took you into custody to get some answers out of you and I couldn't risk you disappearing now could I?" Nan loved how seamlessly the lie passed between her lips but it was essential if she planned on getting the truth. If Marnie knew for certain that she was going to die then she would see no reason to offer up any information. So in order to find out what she wanted, Nan would have to sort of play good cop. Even if it wasn't her nature. "So why don't we make this easy and just talk about why you decided to attack members of the vampire community..."

"I didn't..." Marnie denied, looking fierce for just the briefest of seconds before it dissolved from the look Nan shot at her and yet she continued shaking her head. "This was not my fault."

"You think I haven't heard that before? Stupid witches do something big and bad and then when it doesn't work out, they try and say they didn't mean it, that it wasn't their fault. I didn't care to hear that shit when I was a newborn vampire and I don't care to hear it now." Nan nearly yelled, just barely containing herself as she rushed at the iron bars and grabbed them, causing a loud dinging noise to fill the air and sent Marnie scrambling backwards towards the wall in fear. Nan smiled and let go of the bars and stepped back. "It doesn't have to be hard you know. But if you would just what I asked then this could be painless..."

"It...it said nothing would happen to me if I did this, it...it said I would be safe." Marnie replied, her voice shaking like a leak on a branch and she was back to cowering by the wall. But what she had said intrigued Nan and now she was actually considering holding back on harming the old witch. Marnie seemed to sense that she had struck a cord and continuing to talk could only help. "It promised me..."

"What promised you?" Nan frowned, not liking that she was starting to feel taken by surprise but she indeed had been. Because she didn't think that Marnie had been threatened by anything human. It wasn't possible considering that Marnie was still a powerful enough witch. It had to be something supernatural. "Explain yourself."

"I was threatened to conjure up the spirit of an old necromancer named Antonia and I did it because I was too scared not to." Marnie shakily said, looking up from the circle her arms made and gave the most pathetic look she could give. And had Nan not been a vampire, then she would have thrown up from how ridiculous this bitch looked. Marnie looked around nervously before saying. "The vampire said..."

"The vampire? A vampire forced you to do all this?" Nan was stunned and that didn't ever happen and especially not in a situation where it involved attacks on vampires. This was not the response she had been expecting to get. She narrowed her eyes. "A vampire came to you and made you conjure up this necromancer's spirit to retaliate against another vampire. That doesn't make sense."

"That is what I said but the vampire was very clear that I was to do this or else she would kill me for not doing it willingly. And I was the only other witch around who practiced necromancy. It said I had no choice but to do it.." Marnie's heart rate was racing, and her blood was surging through her veins just as intensely due to the fear she was feeling. But Nan could care less if her prisoner was scared. There was a more pressing matter at hand, a vampire had incited these attacks and problems. That wasn't something Nan thought she would encounter. Marnie looked at her fearfully. "I didn't know what I was getting in to when the vampire came to me, she just said to find a way to conjure up this necromancer's spirit from the past and then she would tell me what else she wanted. And as long as I did what was asked, then she wouldn't hurt me."

"She? It was a female vampire?" Nan took a step back from the barred door with a deep set frown, as she especially did not like hearing about any vampires going after other vampires. But she really didn't like power hungry female vamps. There were very few of them in this world and Nan was one of them. But obviously this vampire was a powerful one or else she couldn't have successfully pulled any of this off. Nan shot her eyes back towards the half cowering with and frowned again. "I want to know more about this female vampire who put you up to this. Who is she?"

* * *

><p><em><span>15 minutes later<span>_

I was pulling into the driveway when I felt a familiar twitch at my blood bond to Godric and I could tell he was close by, very close by. I looked through the windshield of the car and spotted him sitting alone on the front porch steps and I couldn't help but smile at the sight of him. Coming home after hearing about Molly's plans had been a little bit of a bummer but seeing Godric waiting for me cheered me up immensely. I pulled the car to a stop right at the top of the driveway and climbed out with a grin on my face. It had been a very long time since I had been that happy to be alone with Godric and maybe it was just a result to everything that has happened lately or maybe it was a testament to how far we had come since the attack. Whatever the reason, when I walked up those porch steps and took a seat beside him and he smiled at me, I felt all was right with the world and I finally had my best friend back.

"Well hello stranger, fancy meeting you here." I said jokingly, settling back on the steps with my elbows behind me for support as I looked up at him. "Why are you sitting out here? Why aren't you inside with Eric?"

"Eric had to go to the bar for a while and he wanted someone here when you got back. He doesn't like for you to be alone." Godric explained, his face lighting up at the mention of his progeny and he turned on the step to face me and for the first time in a while, I stopped seeing the monster in him that I had been afraid of for so long and just hadn't mentioned. I saw my best friend, I just saw Godric. Maybe all this had to happen for me to realize that he wasn't truly a monster. He seemed to guess what I was thinking. "What's on your mind?"

"Um, nothing really..." I decided to hold off on telling him and the others about Molly until another time. I was going to do it when I got back but now that I was alone with Godric, there were other things on my mind that seemed way more important to talk about. I don't know where this sudden desire came from to delve back into our past issues but it was there and it wasn't like I could ignore it. The wind blew my hair across my eyes and I pushed it away before asking. "Can we talk?"

"I thought that was what we were doing." He asked innocently but there was a twinkle in his eyes that showed he wasn't being serious, which was a rarity since Godric always seemed to be serious. He folded his arms across the top of his knees and tilted his head at me. "Go ahead, say whatever you want.."

"This is going to be out of left field but I want to talk about the attack." I held my breath the second those words left my mouth and waited to see what effect they would have on Godric. His face didn't show any change but his eyes twitched and I felt a rush of shame through our bond that showed he was very much being affected by this subject. I wasn't sure how often Godric thought about what he had done, but I knew I still thought about it occasionally. "I just..we never really talked about it in depth and I feel like you don't know that I forgive..."

"It's ok. We don't have to talk about it." He cut in, slowly shaking his head with his lips tightly pressed into a thin line like he was unsure about how to approach this. "It's not necessary."

"I think it is, because we've never resolved it and I don't want to leave it like that. I don't want it to affect our friendship anymore." I told him, sitting up and wrapping my arms around my legs and looked at him with a shrug. I knew it wasn't natural or comfortable for Godric to get into this kind of stuff and it wasn't really any easier for me. But with all that had happened with the witches and Eric, I didn't want to leave past issues up in the air. We had all almost been pushed up to the line of no return in these past few months and if it ever came to that again, I didn't want anything to be left broken."I want you to know I forgive you."

"I know you forgive me, I can feel it. You never had to say it out loud. I knew I had your forgiveness long ago." Godric's emotions came through to me clearly and I knew without reading his mind that he was telling me the truth and that made me feel better. "It took a while for you to forgive me for what I did and I want you to know that I appreciate that you could find it in your heart to dismiss what happened..."

"I didn't dismiss it and I guess I still don't. But I have let it go because I know that deep down you are not the monster I had feared you had become again. That night was horrible...for the both of us..." I bit down on my bottom lip, hardly daring to believe I was about to go where I was going but if we were already talking about the night of the attack, then we had to talk about everything. I knew he wasn't going to like it and for just a second I considered not saying anything at all. He didn't react well the first time, and he probably wouldn't be thrilled that I was bringing it up again. But it had to be done. "Godric, I want you to know that I don't judge you or look at you differently because of seeing that flashback. It doesn't change my opinion of you and if that's why you lashed out, because you were worried..."

"I am...grateful for your kind words, especially after everything that I put you through..." Godric smiled briefly at me, making him look the way he did when I first saw when I was unconscious on the floor of the Fellowship of the Sun church a few years back. He looked more lighthearted, and even younger then he appeared now. But all that had happened had changed all of us, even him and he was a vampire. Godric ran his fingers through his short hair before saying. "But, I don't wish to talk about that memory that you saw. Not now and not ever. It is a dark part of my past that I wish to just leave there and not give attention to ever again."

"Ok, fair enough." I nodded, knowing I was lucky to have been able to get it out and not have him get angry at me. I was not going to rock the boat by pushing it. "But if you ever need to talk about it..."

"Allison, I'm a vampire. I don't need to talk about my feelings." Godric's voice was joking but I knew that there was a stern, feel behind it. He wasn't going to reply to me and make things awkward or super uncomfortable, but he also wasn't going to let me think that it was ok to talk about this if he didn't want to. He turned towards me with a kind smile and I knew that it was going to be alright even if we didn't talk about it. "But it's nice to know I have a friend to confide in should I ever need to."

"You'll always have a friend in me..." I moved across the steps until I was at his side and slipped my hands around his arm and laid my cheek against his hard shoulder. "Always and forever"

"Forever sounds like a good enough time for me."

* * *

><p><em><span>2 hours later<span>_

"You look like a very happy wife right now."

"Happy and satisfied." I smirked up at Eric, lifting my head from his bare chest to stare at his pale face that held an expression of playfulness since he rolled off me minutes ago and I couldn't help but smile again. After Godric and I had finished talking, it wasn't long before Eric came home for the night and his maker ran off to be with Louie and Helen, leaving me alone to be with my husband which I really needed after talking to Molly. But I never got a chance to tell Eric about the situation, well I should really say I did tell him but he was so insistent on tearing my clothes off that he didn't really acknowledge what I had said. But I didn't really mind all that much because once we were in bed and rolling around, any thoughts of anything else went out the window and I was quite content with just having mind blowing sex with Eric. Something we hadn't done enough since he got him memories back. I propped myself up on my elbows with my chin in my hands and grinned at him. "You were ok."

"Just ok?" He asked, pretending to be offended as he darkened his expression but his blood bond spoke to me, showing that he found my reply amusing and hilarious and soon enough he was laughing. He reached over and ran his fingers up my bare back, his hand combing my hair as he did it. "I think my feelings are hurt."

"You're Eric Northman, you don't have feelings." I teased, giggling a little before turning over on my side and moving closer to him, tucking the sheets around me as I went. "But you do a good job of pretending you do."

"Thanks, that really makes my night." He rolled his eyes, his blonde hair flopping over his forehead as he turned to look at me. He looked so amazing lying there with the sheets piled around his waist, showing just enough skin to keep my nerves crackling. He smirked like his old self, reminding me how much I had missed it when his real self was gone. "You are very feisty tonight, you must be in a good mood."

"Well a better mood then I was earlier that's for sure, talking to Godric helped and I think we finally fixed our friendship. But being with you defintiely helped." I smiled,not smirked at my husband as the realization dawned on me just how much I needed him in my life. Sure we had our ups and downs and our marriage and bond would never be perfect. But there was a few rare moments when time seemed to stand still and being with him made everything ok again. He may piss me off and be the meanest and most selfish person I knew, but he was my husband and as long as he was by my side, I knew I would be ok. "I'm so glad you have you back. I missed you."

"Are you sure? The werewolf wasn't good enough company?..." Eric raised is eyebrows teasingly at me, showing that while he was still jealous of Alcide, he had let it go in favor of trusting what I told him. He ran his hand down my arm before saying. "I'm glad to be back too and I wouldn't admit this to anyone but you..But the thought of leaving you alone killed me."

"Well, at least now we don't have to worry about it." I replied softly, laying down so my head was tucked into the curve of his neck and I reached down to twist my fingers around his before sighing. "Do you think that this time, life will be normal without any more shakeups or secrets? Or is it just always meant to be like back and forth tug?"

"I think it's more possible now then ever before for us to finally have peace." He told me with what I knew was a thoughtful look on his face. I could feel the wheels in his had turning, his blood bond to me twitching and I knew he was thinking about everything. "Everything had finally passed. The Dallas coven is destroyed, your father met the true death, Antonia is gone and I have my memories back. It will be ok now."

"Yea but..." I began to say but Eric cut me off by covering my mouth with his hand.

"No buts, its the truth. Things are going to be different now." Eric sounded determined and serious, like he was not about to accept any other outcome beside the one that he wanted. "There is nothing else that could possibly happen that hasn't already happened. There is nothing else out there that's waiting for us."

"We've said that before Eric..." I reminded him, rolling my eyes before closing them. I knew Eric wanted to believe what he was saying, but we had too much history on our side to believe anything other then it wouldn't be long until we had trouble again. I would enjoy the moments we had before it fell apart again, but I was already preparing myself for what was to come. But I simply snuggled closer to Eric and said. "..you're right thought, nothing else can happen."

* * *

><p><em><span>Outskirts of Shreveport<span>_

"I'm going to ask you one time and one time only. Tell me how this whole situation started or else I will have use force to get it out of you. Your choice." Nan told Marnie as she stood inside the now open cell and leaned against the metal bars with her arms crossed and glared down at the pathetic mess on the floor by her feet who had been stumbling over her words for the past few hours and Nan was quickly losing her patience. She had been only too ready to let this old woman take her time since she did provide one key element of information and that was the revelation that they now had a rogue female vampire running around causing trouble. And that was enough to satisfy Nan until the stupid witch could gather herself and begin getting to the root of the real things she wanted. But as time went on and Marnie didn't begin to talk again, Nan felt like she had no choice but to resort to the threatening approach. She stood up straight and walked forward until she was standing above Marnie and nudged her with the pointed toe of her black boot. "Speak now or...well, you know where I'm going with this."

"Alright, alright. I'll talk, please just don't hurt me. I will tell you what ever you want to know." Marnie finally found her voice, looking up with big wide eyes as she curled her hands around her arms like she was cold and swallowed hard before speaking again. "Just tell me.."

"I want to know more information on this female vampire who called upon your skills." Nan was not in the frame of mind to be patient right now but she was willing to do it if it meant getting every single detail straight."Tell me about your encounters with her."

"She came to me a few weeks ago when I was working late in the shop. She walked in and demanded that I direct her to a necromancer. When I told her that I practiced it a little bit, she became very interested and stayed a while. She told me she wanted the powers of an old necromancer to help her get revenge on Eric Northman and she told me that I would be the one to conjure the spirit of Antonia. And that if I didn't, I would die within 2 minutes. So I told her I would help, I would call upon whatever spirit she wanted me to call on and I would do whatever she ordered on the basis that she wouldn't kill me. And she agreed. She told me that when I got a hold of Antonia's spirit, that I was to allow her to possess me and then since the vampires were sure to come investigate and that Northman would be sent first, that I was to erase his mind so he couldn't remember anything and could not offer any resistance..."

"But why did she want to attack Mr. Northman?" Nan pressed her lips into a tight line as her forehead furrowed. This female seemed a lot more of a threat then Nan had originally considered and she didn't like that one bit. If there was one thing she hated it was being taken by surprise. "What was her reasoning for targeting him?"

"I don't know, she wouldn't tell me. She only said I was to allow Antonia to use my body to follow through with her orders. She said I wasn't powerful enough to do it on my own." Marnie explained, clasping her hands together nervously as her eyes darted from side to side, eying the crowd of vampire guards who stood in a still straight line in the room outside the cell. "I tried asking her why she wanted me to do this and she only said it was an act of vengeance."

"An act of vengeance. Hmm, that doesn't surprise me considering it is Eric Northman we are talking about." Nan tapped her fingers against her jawline, finding no surprise that some vampire had done all this for revenge. Eric Northman had been around a long time and in the past thousand years he had pissed off all sorts of supernatural beings, including vampires. So it wasn't so much of a shock to hear this had been done out of spite. But still, Nan had an obligation to put a stop to any vampire who posed a threat to their kind or threatened their equal rights. "Now tell me about the vampire herself. What did she look like? What was her name? And age?"

"She didn't give much detail about herself but I could tell that she was an old vampire. Possible over a millennium old, give or take a year. She had long hair, dark like chocolate and very angry blue eyes, I remember that clearly. Whatever she was pissed about, it was very big." Marnie replied, her lower lip shaking as she spoke, as if remembering the encounter was terrifying. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself and looked up pleadingly but did not beg again to go unharmed. "Her name is Carina, she said she knew Eric Northman."

"Well, that certainly makes things more interesting now doesn't it?" Nan smirked, thrilled that she had touched on who was behind these attacks and as she stood up and nodded to her guards, she was already making plans to go to Bon Temps to see the King. He now had a new task to take on. She passed by the closest guard on her way out of the cell and waved her hand. "Take care of the witch."

"Wait..what? No!" Marnie exclaimed fiercely, scrambling back on her hands and knees until she reached the wall and could go no further. Her betrayed eyes stared in between the bars furiously. "You promised you wouldn't kill me. You gave your word that you wouldn't hurt me if I told you what you wanted to know.."

"I lied." Nan smirked, shrugged her leather jacket covered shoulders before heading towards the stairs, the last thing she heard before leaving was Marnie's desperate screaming.

* * *

><p><em><span>1 hour later<span>_

"Oh fuck, not you again."

"Yes me again, get use to it Bill. You're not the only one in charge around here. So I suggest you respect my authority some more or else I might take away your title of King.."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh I would, just try me."

"Are those two ever going to get along?" I asked the group behind me that consisted of Eric, Godric and Sookie who all just stood there with me in the hallway of my house as we stared at the sight in front of us. Bill and Nan had been fighting back and forth ever since the older female vampire had joined us here at the house and so far she hadn't gotten a chance to offer up the reason for her visit. Bill had practically jumped on her the minutes she walked through the door and the rest of us were quite content with just maintaining our distance until we had to intervene and so far we hadn't. I was kind of with Bill though on this one. I wasn't all that thrilled to see Nan now or ever, her visits never came without some kind of drama and after the up and down night I had already had, I just wanted time with my family and friends without anything else happening. But it looked like that wasn't the case. So I just stepped forward and waved my hands to get their attention. "Uh hello, can you two stop yelling at each other long enough so we can find out why the hell she is here?"

"And the little Faerie girl brings this intelligent conversation to a halt, thank God." Nan didn't look very thankful as she rolled her eyes first at me and then at Bill, showing her extreme dislike for the King even though she was the one who had put him in that position. She shook her head at him before turning away and looking at the rest of us with an air of authority about her. "Look I'll keep this short. The witch is dead."

"Wait what?" Eric frowned, the first of the group to speak to Nan beside Bill and I and Eric didn't seem like he had thought that Nan would take it that far. "You had her killed? Since when do you support that kind of action considering your involvement with the AVL?"

"She was far too dangerous to be left alive, if I let her go then anyone could have used her to their advantage. So I had her taken care of." Nan explained, her eyes turning to amused slits as she looked around at all of us, almost like she was daring one of us to have an opinion contrary to hers. When no one else spoke, she turned her head back over her shoulder to look at Bill. "And it seemed that I was right."

"About what?"

"About the fact that the witch wasn't acting alone, she had help." Nan replied triumphantly at Bill, an expression that didn't serve to ease the tension between the two of them. "Vampire help to be exact."

"There was a vampire behind this?" Godric asked curiously, his eyes getting big as he picked up on the topic like he hadn't before. He had been trying not to pay attention to the conversation out of respect but when it came to Eric and information about why he had been targeted, he focus was laser tight. "A vampire was in on it?"

"A female vampire actually. Apparently this vamp sought out Marnie and threatened to kill her unless she conjured up the spirit of Antonia to go after Eric and take his memories. According to the female, it was an act of vengeance." Nan replied, eying Eric in such a way that I found myself stepping close to him protectively. A female vampire had been at the helm of the necromancer crisis? That was something I didn't expect to hear. I had thought this was all on Marnie but it looked like I was wrong yet again. Nan looked away from Eric and said. "This female vampire didn't glamor her, but she was old enough to use her age as a factor in intimidation. And if Marnie did this without being glamored then of course I couldn't leave her alive for it to happen again."

"We need to find this vampire right away and seek punishment. She's an obvious threat to our race." Bill replied, his face dark with seriousness and he essentially ignored the rest of us as he looked at Nan. "What's her name? What does she look like?"

"Her name is Carina and according to Marnie's guess, she could be at least a thousand years old. She has long dark brown hair and blue eyes with a very charming personality." Nan said this very sarcastically, showing that she knew this vampire was anything but charming. It wasn't often that vampire of that age was female and it certainly was even more rare that a female vamp was this vindictive. But I couldn't remember Eric ever telling me about a female named Carina, so I didn't entirely understand why she would send a witch after him. But then again it was Eric, so who knows how many people he had pissed off over the years. Nan just shook her head and went back towards the door. "If she's found in your state, then she is your problem Bill. And I expect you to deal with it."

We all watched Nan leave and every single one of us breathed a heavy sigh of relief when Bill slammed the door behind her. Even the vampires who didn't need to breathe did it, showing that Nan made everyone uncomfortable no matter what they were. Eric's hand felt firm against my back as he stood close to me, his face in a frown of confusion and I knew he too was trying to figure out why he had been targeted. Bill had returned to Sookie's side and it was only Godric who stood alone but as I turned my face to look at him, I was shocked to see a horrified look on his face.

"Godric? Godric what's wrong?" I left Eric's side to go to my best friend but even when I was standing in front of him he didn't seem to realize I was there. I felt something strange flooding through him, I couldn't tell what but it was something of concern to me. Even his thoughts didn't give anything away and I had to touch his shoulder before he would look at me. "Are you ok?"

"It's not possible." He didn't really seem to be speaking to me, it was like he was speaking more to himself then anything and that was weird. Godric never retreated this far into himself, not since the night he attacked me when it seemed like he was stuck in his head. It was exactly like that right now and I was scared. He just kept muttering. "It's not possible, it's not possible."

"What's not possible?" Eric demanded, joining me at Godric's side and looking down from his great height to his maker who he respected above all others including me, and couldn't hide his concern. "Master, what is it?"

"Oh my God, I know who she is." Godric's eyes just came back into focus and I watched him as he looked first taken aback and then beyond the realm of shock. Godric was 2000 years old, he shouldn't be surprised by anything and there couldn't be anything that could make him look so terrified. And if there was, then the rest of us should be just as scared. If it was bad enough to shake up a vampire like Godric then we didn't have any reason to be feeling safe. "I know who she is."

"What do you mean?" Bill questioned, stepping closer with Sookie as we all pressed in closer to Godric. But the only one Godric would look at was Eric. And while I couldn't read what he was thinking, I could see in his eyes that he was experiencing a flash of an old memory as well as a surge of guilt. Something was going on, something that none of us knew anything about. So when Godric opened his mouth again, I was expecting one thing. But I heard was something that was far beyond consideration, because what he said next shook up everyone's world. He looked right at Eric and let it out.

"She is my other progeny...my first progeny. Carina is the very first vampire I created, not Eric."

**Author's Note: There you have it, the finale chapter of this fic and of course it had to end on a cliff hanger. Soo Mr Godric was hidign a pretty big secret from his past. Eric was not only not his only progeny but Eric wasn't even the first. And as it turns out Carina was his first and for some reason, she came after Eric or at least sent Marnie/Antonia after him. And why? You'll have to stick around and read the 6th Fic. Thanks again for reading and reviewing. And i hope that the people who stuck with this series since the beginning will like where i take it next.**

**Look for the 6th fic coming soon...titled "Lost without you"...if you thought you knew crazy, you have no idea what i am about to do.**


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